Kerala’s little footballing supergirl : Nikhila T
Fourteen year old Nikhila T, 9th standard student from Nadakkavu Girls Higher Secondary school has reached far in football at this tender age when she captained India at the recently concluded AFC U 14 girls football tournament in Sri Lanka.
Nikhila started her football playing with her elder brother and his friends near the nearby fields. She used to play football at school during the breaks and was spotted by her class teacher who recommended her for the school team.
Football is a game were very few girls come forward to. Nikhila thanks her physical education teacher at school Ms Fousia for showing faith in her and believing in her talent.
She represented Kozhikode district team where they won the 3rd place last year and her performance got her a place in Kerala State team. Nikhila was later called for the Indian camp at Bhopal and was chosen to lead the 22 member squad of Indian U 14 girls football team.
The team reached Colombo on 1st May this year for the tournament in which India toppled teams like Iran, Jordan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan.
Speaking to FootballKerala.com she said “they didn’t take us for shopping so I was worried about the gift that was suppose to give to my coach miss. Fousia. But she told that she was able to give 9 goals as her gift to her coach.”
Nikhila is 3rd child of Mr. Surendran and Sheeba. Her elder sister Nimisha is final year B. Com student and brother Nithin is a second yr. B Com student.
Besides football, Nikhila practices long jump and high jump. She thanks her coach Fousia and Mr. Majeed, a business man as well as her neighbour, for sponsoring her jersey boots etc.
Nikhila dreams of continuing her footballing and dreams of representing India Seniors one day.
FootballKerala hopes Nikhila’s story would inspire more girls to take up football in India.
Interview by Rensy for FootballKerala.com
June 23rd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
just a question. Dint Tanvi Barghava from Chandigarh lead the team? I am not too sure.
But the girls had tremendous success in the tournament and Nikhila played a big role.
If we have inspired Physical Education teachers lot of stars will come up and the new breed of Physical Education teachers are quite good. Let us hope these dedicated teachers and students will bring more laurels to the state.
Nikhila has a wonderful future ahead. Wishes and congratulations are not enough, i suppose. Some help if needed from our side, if i am capable of fulfilling it, will be offered to the youngster.
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Thanks Clash for the offer.
We will be updating you if we get any info from her.
We filed the article from info we got from the interviewer. We too had a doubt on this as the squad list doesn’t show Nikhila as the captain of the side.
There is possibility that she was given the captaincy following any injury or any other things. This will be clarified soon.