Travelled 15 km on foot to play football: 20-year-old Indian midfielder Manisha Kalyan

Preparations are in full swing for the AFC Women's Asian Cup to be held in India from Thursday. Swedish coach Thomas Dennerby, who took charge of the Indian women’s football team in August last year, named a 23-strong squad for the tournament, one of the forward players for whom is Manisha Kalyan. 

Manisha, hailing from Moguwal village in Hoshiarpur district, Punjab, became the first Indian woman footballer to score in a continental club tournament, when she scored against Uzbekistan's FC Bunyodkor in the AFC women's Asian championship in 2021. 

After this, the 20-year-old was named the AIFF Women’s Emerging Footballer of the Year award — a tremendous feat in such a short football career.

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“My family and friends were happy and proud that I scored that goal. It is such a great feeling when your parents are proud of you. I had received so many calls and messages that day, which I will be forever grateful,” Manisha tells HerStory.

Since she has joined the national team, Manisha is reported to be one of the most exciting players among the younger lot. 

Talking about her experience joining the Indian team, she says, “Ever since I joined the national team, beginning with the U-17 age group, I have felt more professional. A lot of things have changed. I feel that I have a lot to learn. We played internationally over the last two years. The more matches we played, the more confidence we gathered. We have worked a lot on our strength and stamina. We have faced many big teams, higher ranked than us, which has given us a lot of confidence and shown us where we need to improve.”

She shares the senior players in the team, Aditi Chauhan, Ashalata Devi and others, guide the young players on where they made mistakes and where they need improvement after every match. 

“When I played as a winger, initially, my first touch used to go out. Now, I have learnt how to keep it in. I worked on my shooting accuracy as well,” she says.

Journey into becoming a footballer

Up until the sixth grade, Manisha was into sprinting before she started playing football. Around the same time, her PT teacher, also appointed as a selector for the district football team trial, asked her if she wanted to play the sport, and she readily agreed — the rest is history. 

While football isn’t a popular sport in her village, she decided to learn the sport despite all challenges. “I had to travel almost 15 km whenever I wanted to play professional football in a girls team. My father was a coach over there. Sometimes, I used to go there on my bicycle, but most of the time, I had to walk or run those 15 km,” she remembers, adding that people in her village used to discourage her parents saying that she played with the boys, but her family never paid heed to such comments. 

“I live in the village, so sometimes people used to say your daughter is playing with boys. I did not have a team of girls in my village, so I used to play with boys. My family members used to tell them that if she wants to play, then let her play. I had to travel quite a bit back then if I wanted to play with a professional girl’s team,” she adds.

However, things changed for Manisha when she created history after scoring a goal against Brazil in their 6–1 defeat at the 2021 International Women's Football Tournament of Manaus. 

“The perception has changed in my village. People who used to complain earlier now come and congratulate my parents about backing me to pursue a career in sports,” she says. 

Punjab’s ‘Dinho’

Manisha looks up to Brazilian footballers Neymar and Ronaldinho so much so that her friends back home also nicknamed her ‘Dinho’. “I love watching them play. My friends also called me ‘Dinho’ because of my hairstyle and the way I played,” she adds.

Talking about her top achievements, she says, “My first call-up to the Indian U-17 squad, my goal against Brazil in November — that’s a goal I will remember forever. I would also add my goal against Uzbekistan’s FC Bunyodkar during the AFC Women’s Asian Championship. I hope there are many more such moments to come going forward, but until now, this makes me proud.”

She aims to win the Asian Cup and also wants to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. “And also, I want to keep scoring more goals for my country.”

Finally, she says, “I want to tell the family members to support their child to play as they can also have a career in football too. Encourage your children to play so that our Indian football grows stronger than ever.”