On football field, girls bring passion and aggression to matches

PUNE: Piya Ranka adores Oscar, the Chelsea midfielder. “I am not one of those Messi or Ronaldo fans,” says the 16-year-old.
Another urban school girl aping her peers with a superficial interest in football? Read further. “He is Brazilian and one of the young stars in the game. He has great dribbling skills and control of the ball. His jersey number is eight,” the trivia tumbles out.
Piya, a standard XI commerce student of The Bishop’s School, highlights the ‘changed’ scenario in big cities where live TV and growing disposable income have spread the interest to more sports. Clearly, football is running cricket close.
“I have never played cricket. Ever since I started playing in school in St. Mary’s School previously, it’s always been football,” Piya adds.
More and more young girls like her are in for the real thing. “It’s not just for the boys. We can play as well as the boys,” says Piya.
Her love for football began five years ago when she started playing with the boys in her society. She is one of the 24 girls selected from trials for the Pune FC women’s team.
The city’s first I-League club celebrated AFC Women’s Football Day with a seven-a-side girls’ invitational tournament in the city on Sunday. Sixteen teams, eight each in two competitions, one for schools and the other for corporates, were in the fray.
It didn’t matter to Piya, a goalkeeper, and her schoolmates that the event was right in the middle of her school exams. “The exams are on, but you can always find an excuse to play the game,” she says, mischievously.

She believes Pune FC’s decision to set up a women’s team fills a gap. “There are many girls in the rural and district areas who are eager. At least in the city, we now have a team,” she said.
Kalpana Dass, Pune FC coach, vouches for the change in the way even the parents are approaching the game.
“Earlier, football was looked at as a man’s game. Now, even celebrity kids are taking up (the sport). I have seen Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter playing in the mud. Today, girls play aggressively,” Dass, who represented India at the sub-junior level, says.
That aggression translates to match action as well.
“Those days it used to be defensive football. Now there are a lot of counter-attacks. The game was also static earlier, whereas now there is more flow and movement,” she adds.
With India set to host the Under-17 World Cup, which will have the women’s championship held concurrently, in 2017, Dass said it was imperative for the AIFF to focus on the women’s game.
“If India has any chance of playing in the World Cup, it’s the women’s team. We are ranked 53rd. We are very good at the Under-14 level but lack practice at the U-16 and U-19 level. Other countries spot talent at U-14 and then train, which we don’t,” Dass says.