'Football gave me wings'

“It's Messi! Messi is the one I follow in football. I follow his delivery and his skills, and whenever I am on the field, I try to play like him,” she said. Her eyes were beaming with excitement as she spoke about her idol.

Mossamat Shirat Jahan Shopna, a striker of the Bangladesh under-16 women's football team as well as the senior team, was an ordinary teenager until football changed her life. The girl from Rangpur narrated her story of becoming a footballer, on the occasion of international women's day.

“My father is a farmer and my mother is a housewife. My parents did not support me then, but now they are proud of me. Everyone should support girls in sports; girls can do wonders,” she said while reminiscing her early football days.

“I started playing at the age of 10, and of course the villagers back then, were not supportive. My parents wanted me to study and take up a job when I grew up. My neighbors said it was a sin for girls to play such sports wearing men's clothes. But I never paid any heed. Football is my passion.”

The 10th grader then recalled her first achievement as a footballer, “It was at the 2012 Bangamata Gold Cup Primary School Football Tournament that I first tasted victory. Then the story went on and on. The win in Nepal two years ago was very thrilling because from there we established that girls can play football, and they can win too,” she said adding that her passion had started gathering support after the 2012 tournament.

She recalled memories of going against everyone for football, barefooted, and sometimes playing with a tennis ball as nobody supported the girls. But later on, the upazila nirbahi officer of Rangpur Sadar, Harun-ur-Rashid came forward to promote them. “He arranged for us to play different matches, where people paid for a ticket to come and see us, and with that money, he bought us jerseys and boots,” the girl said.

The Bangladesh Football Federation picked the girl from the Plan International under-14 talent hunt in 2013. When contacted, the federation's women's committee chairman Mahfuza Akter Kiron said, “Shopna is among the most promising players of the national under-16 squad, and we are doing everything in our power to maximise her potential in football”.

Now preparing for the 2017 AFC U-16 Women's Championship in Thailand, Shopna says, “My dreams got wings to fly with since I joined the national team. I dream to take Bangladesh women's football to the next level and I urge every girl to chase their dream to find their wings to fly too.”