MARGAO
Karuna Football Foundation (KFF) officially opened its National Residential Girls' Football Academy on Sunday on the occasion of the National Sports Day of India, at the Holy Rosary Convent High School, Nuvem.
The academy was inaugurated at the hands of VM Prabhu Desai, Executive Director, Sports Authority of Goa, Brahmanand Sankhwalkar, Goa Football Development Council Chairman and Arjuna awardee, Savio Madeira, All India Football Federation, National Technical Director, and a host of Goan football stalwarts.
The academy's genesis goes back to over the last decade of commitment after being formed to promote football in particular. The academy teams have been participating in the age-group tournaments conducted by Goa Football Association (GFA). It fielded boys' teams initially and later launched girls' and women's teams. The women's team participated in the Vedanta Women's Football League Championship held in February-March 2021.
“The girls in the academy have been carefully selected by well-known scouts working with the underprivileged and marginalised communities and there are five girls from Manipur, three girls from Tamil Nadu, one girl each from Kerala and Maharashtra and 14 girls from Goa,” stated Kennedy D'Silva, the foundation's director in a press release.
On the occasion of the inauguration ceremony of the academy, KFF felicitated some of the legendary Goan women's footballers “ Yolanda DeSouza, Juliana Gurjao e Calaco, Succorinha Pereira, Ritinha Pereira and Maria Rebello.
“The academy is providing the talented girls from economically backward backgrounds with an all-round education and have been selected based on merit and the academy aims to help build understanding and appreciation across different cultures and sectors of society so they have developed it to be at a national level. The girls will gain experience in working with and in building consensus amongst people of diverse backgrounds because they are to be trained in life skills and vocational training for jobs in the future,” the release said.
“The academy which houses the 24 girls with coaches also on the campus are being supervised by the Apostolic Carmel sisters, which is ample assurance for the parents regarding the quality of work that the foundation has designed to promote among the learning and growth of the girls. The girls will participate in a range of engaging and challenging activities that promote self-discipline, build confidence and expand their abilities.”
UEFA-licensed coach from Germany, Heidi Scheunemann will work as the academy's technical director. She has worked for the last two and a half decades in Indonesia in similar communities and has produced several national-level players for the Indonesian women's team. The German will be assisted by Mario Aguiar as the head coach, the goalkeeping coach for the junior Indian national team during the under-17 FIFA World Cup held in 2017 in India. Former India women's captain Maria Rebello, the FIFA women's referee and now an assessor, is also part of the coaching team. The coaching team has been joined by Naomi Vase from Pune, who was earlier with Dempo SC.
