Four female booters of Rangpur are going to Portugal for better training. Their eyes were beaming with excitement. They proved girls can do everything boys can do. Sometimes they outshine boys with their talent, patience and perseverance.
Palichara is a village about 15 km away from Rangpur city, where once it was difficult for even boys to engage in sports. The girls of this village are now known as the best footballers in the country.
Four female footballers from the village have got the opportunity to go to Portugal for further training. Now their goal is to go further and touch the sky.
At the initiative of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, allotment for the construction of a stadium was given last year for the training of these girls at the Palichara MN High School ground in the village. The construction work of the stadium is underway.
In the long-term camp of the Directorate of Sports and the Ministry of Youth and Sports, 40 female players from all over the country were selected from the Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib Under-17 Football Tournament.
Six of them were players of the Youth Sporting Club of Palichara village in Rangpur. They had been receiving intensive training at BKSP since January 17. A total of 16 selected players from the country are being sent to Cristiano Ronaldo's country Portugal for further advanced training.
Of them, four female footballers-Nasrin, Mourashi, Rekha and Shila are from Palichara village of Rangpur.
Earlier, the girls of this village became the champions in JFA Cup U-14 women's football. At present there are 27 female footballers in the village. Sirat Jahan and Ishrat Jahan from this village are playing in the national women's football team. Meanwhile, 11 footballers from the village have played for the U-15 national team in Hong Kong, Thailand and other countries.
They are- Runa, Rumi, Sultana, Swapna, Runa Akhter, Mausumi (Captain), Brishti, Laboni, Asha, Zainab and Nasrin.
From the beginning of the journey in 2011 till now the number of successes achieved by the girls of this village is quite rich.
The team won the Bangamata School Football Championship in 2012, became runners-up in 2014, became champion in the BRAC’s Football Tournament in 2015 and reached the finals of the KFC National Women's Championship.
In 2016, they secured the third place in KFC Senior National Women's Championship. They became runners-up in the JFA Under-14 Tournament in 2017, and won 47th Summer Football Championship in 2018.
They became champion in JFA U-14 Bangladesh in 2019, and runners-up in 2020. The girls of Palichara won the title of Bangladesh Champion in Beach Football in 2021 and Bangamata Sheikh Fazilatunnesa National Gold Cup Football Under-17 tournament for Rangpur divisional team in 2021-22.
Ishrat Jahan, who was scolded by his mother for playing football, has now taken responsibility for her household. Going to their house, the impression of poverty could be observed. Half of the semi- pucca house has a tin fence and other half is made of bamboo. A poster of Bangamata International Gold Cup Tournament pasted on the wooden door could also be seen.
Ishrat’s father Badsha Mia died of cancer in 2019. When Rosifa Begum was in a bewildered state with her four daughters, her footballer daughter directed her towards the light. In the same year, Bangladesh became champion in SAFF U-18 women's championship. Like other players, Ishrat also received a cash prize of Tk 10 lakh from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Ishrat paid Tk three lakh from that money for the treatment of her mother.
Milon Mia, a 30-year-old coach from the same village, is behind the achievements of the girls of Palichara, who gave them direction and build them as great players. He got involved in coaching female in an unanticipated manner. Earlier, Shamim Khan Miskin and Harun Aur Rashid were the coaches of the female footballers of Palichara. They used to coach the girls of the area without any fees.