{"id":36665,"date":"2019-05-09T10:50:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T10:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=36665"},"modified":"2019-05-09T10:50:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T10:50:15","slug":"situation-much-more-positive-now-feels-pooja-first-international-woman-player-from-haryana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=36665","title":{"rendered":"Situation much more positive now, feels Pooja, first international woman player from Haryana"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PoojaBy Soumo Ghosh,<\/strong><\/p>\n

AIFF Media Team<\/strong><\/p>\n

LUDHIANA: The perception of people about the fairer sex playing the beautiful game was not always equitable. Many female players have had to leave the sport in the prime of their lives, just because society had planned other things for them.<\/p>\n

Former India U-19 International Pooja Joon Narwal is one amongst them.<\/p>\n

Having started playing football at an early age, Pooja soon rose through the ranks in Haryana, even going on to play District level tournaments when she was still in school. After performing creditably at the School Nationals, Pooja created history by being selected for the India U-19 side that played the AFC U-19 Championship in Goa in 1999.<\/p>\n

By being selected, she became the first woman from Haryana to be selected in any National Team across all age-groups in football. Now the Assistant Coach of the FC Alakhpura side in the Hero Indian Women\u2019s League 2018-19 season, Pooja has gone on to carve her career in football despite facing many obstacles.<\/p>\n

 FOOTBALL VS STUDIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/strong>But while Pooja went on to play football at the National and the University levels, her career in International football, however, was short-lived\u2019 and it was not for lack of talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had got National Team call-ups a couple of times, but sadly I couldn\u2019t turn up. The timing of those camps always clashed with my college exams, and my parents advised me to secure my future through studies, rather than go into football.\u201d<\/p>\n

 \u201cMy parents had a simple point of view \u2013 \u2018So you\u2019ll play a few matches for India. What after that? All this hard work, and no fruit at the end?\u201d she exclaimed. \u201cPerhaps if I had got better guidance back then, I would have been able to continue both my playing career, and my studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

 \u201cI felt really sad, leaving the sport in my early twenties, but I had to swallow the bitter pill and carry on with my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

 FOOTBALL FOR WOMEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/strong>While she herself had a hard time continuing her football career, Pooja believes that \u201cthe situation is much positive for the female players in the modern day.\u201d<\/p>\n

 With the Indian Women\u2019s League going on, and innumerable International camps and tournaments being played by the National Teams, girls have way more opportunities to make a life out of the beautiful game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are at an exciting stage right now. Next year we will have the FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup, and that will surely help bring a lot of awareness about women\u2019s football in the country,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, thanks to the internet, parents and girls these days are much more aware of alternate opportunities, so if a career in sports does not work out, the girls still have a future where they can make a good living,\u201d continued Pooja.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember her. She was one of the strikers in our team back then. She was young, we are good friends. Now I\u2019m really happy to see her become a coach. I\u2019d like to see more such former national team players take up coaching roles,\u201d recollects current India National Team Head Coach Maymol Rocky, who was the Haryana girl\u2019s teammate at that time.<\/p>\n

 THE IMPACT<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/strong>While no other woman had played in any National Team in football before her, Pooja\u2019s selection in the India U-18 squad sent ripples across women\u2019s football in Haryana.<\/p>\n

 \u201cI remember, people started talking about this back home. They suddenly realised that women can also become National Team players if they work hard enough,\u201d said Pooja.<\/p>\n

 \u201cBefore there were only five teams in the Women\u2019s District tournaments. But then more and more teams started to sign up, and we started having a larger pool of players for the state side too,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n

 The Alakhpura assistant coach, who also works at the Haryana Government Sports Department went on to state that even the teachers who used to go to the grounds to watch her play, would go to the other parents and explain to them how a girl can make the nation proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"PoojaBy Soumo Ghosh,<\/strong><\/p>\n

AIFF Media Team<\/strong><\/p>\n

LUDHIANA: The perception of people about the fairer sex playing the beautiful game was not always equitable. Many female players have had to leave the sport in the prime of their lives, just because society had planned other things for them.<\/p>\n

Former India U-19 International Pooja Joon Narwal is one amongst them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football-football"],"yoast_head":"\nSituation much more positive now, feels Pooja, first international woman player from Haryana - IndianSportsNews.com - Latest Updated Sports News & Sports Blogs of Cricket, Hockey, Golf, Football, Tennis & Other Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=36665\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Situation much more positive now, feels Pooja, first international woman player from Haryana - IndianSportsNews.com - Latest Updated Sports News & Sports Blogs of Cricket, Hockey, Golf, Football, Tennis & Other Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Soumo Ghosh, AIFF Media Team LUDHIANA: The perception of people about the fairer sex playing the beautiful game was not always equitable. 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Former India U-19 International Pooja Joon Narwal is one amongst them.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/?p=36665\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"IndianSportsNews.com - Latest Updated Sports News & Sports Blogs of Cricket, Hockey, Golf, Football, Tennis & Other Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-09T10:50:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/indiansportsnews.co.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Pooja-football.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"767\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"451\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/indiansportsnews.co.in\\\/?p=36665#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/indiansportsnews.co.in\\\/?p=36665\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/indiansportsnews.co.in\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/b8f51f3c66686ab3518464e9b8368646\"},\"headline\":\"Situation much more positive now, feels Pooja, first international woman player from Haryana\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-09T10:50:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/indiansportsnews.co.in\\\/?p=36665\"},\"wordCount\":710,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/indiansportsnews.co.in\\\/?p=36665#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/indiansportsnews.co.in\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/Pooja-football.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Football\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/indiansportsnews.co.in\\\/?p=36665#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/indiansportsnews.co.in\\\/?p=36665\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/indiansportsnews.co.in\\\/?p=36665\",\"name\":\"Situation much more positive now, feels Pooja, first international woman player from Haryana - 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