Camp organised for selection of women footballers to int'l clubs

Kolkata: To give better opportunities to women professional footballers in India, The Calcutta Cricket and Football Club (CCFC) organises Elite Camp for selection to international football clubs.

It claims the camp to be the first ever open women's trial to play for foreign football clubs in India. Five football coaches have been called to train and analyze 20 participants, from June 6 to 11. The ones selected will be taken to foreign football clubs to play.

The five women football coaches are Tom Sermanni, head of women's' football for Western Sydney Wanderers; Mia Medvedovski, assistant coach for Dinamo Zagreb in Croatia; Pedro Martin, head coach of Marbella FC and Scout for Higher Level teams; Ross Stormonth, head coach of Rangers U-19; and Caitlin Friend, assistant coach at Melbourne Victory and head coach in State League.

Sanaya Mehta Vyas, founder Women in Sport, said, "We see a lot of talented women in sports around us. They come from backgrounds where they lack resources and proper coaching, which can take them to an international podium. This is to create opportunities for these talented sportswomen."

The goal of the tryouts is to get women football players in India into countries with higher international ranking for football. A couple of years back, the club had sent Ngangom Bala Devi to the United Kingdom (UK) to play. She is the first Indian woman to sign up for a European football club, Rangers FC. "Seeing the success of Bala, we got the confidence to make it bigger. This time we thought that instead of sending one girl abroad, get some coaches from abroad and bring as many girls as we can and give lots of girls an opportunity to at least try out," Vyas said. The camp was opened to all members of the national team, professional players and the West Bengal team. Some of the participants are PIFA Sports FC's goalkeeper Payal Basude, 19, Sethu FC's right back Arifa Zaheer, 24, and Gokulum Kerala FC's midfielder Jyoti Chauhan.