It seemed she had hung up her boots after facing a knee injury in 2017. But ask the fiery left winger from the Indian women’s football team, Sasmita Mallik, about retirement from the sport, she instantly replies: “I haven’t announced yet!”
One of India’s shining stars in the SAFF women’s football championships, Mallik—who is also a mother now—is considering to make a comeback. The 37-year-old had taken a break from the sport after her playing for the Women’s Indian League and in the 3rs SAFF Women’s Championship in Siliguri in 2017. But this physical absence didn’t erase the passion for football that she had nurtured since teenage. And she worked on herself all these years to be able to kick the ball and dribble it to the goal post again. She is now waiting for the right opportunity to make a return to sports.
Looking back at her tryst with football
Born in Aul in Odisha’s Kendrapada district, she developed a liking for the sport after watching an all-India tournament in her village. “I was awestruck to see how the footballers were playing. It was a rare sight for me. I was studying in class V back then. As the match progressed, I had a feeling that even I could kick the ball as they did. During the match, the organisers were making an announcement to invite girls from the village to take up the sports,” Mallik, who works for the Railways, said.
It was announced that the late chairman Devendra Sharma (who later became an MLA) wanted to provide necessary kit to anyone who wanted to pursue football or cricket. “I enrolled but when I returned home with my father, my relatives were upset. Girls don’t go to play’, they said. They strongly objected despite my father’s support. But, thankfully, I had my brother by my side. He had just returned to the village after completing his studies and informed everyone that a lot of women play the game. He insisted that I should be given a chance,” she added. And she started playing in 2001. In a year’s time, she was part of the national team. While playing for the Odisha team in the junior nationals in 2002, she had scored a goal against the opponent team of West Bengal. This caught the attention of the selectors and she made it to the national team. In junior football, she made played at the international level for the first time in 2007 in Iran.
In 2010, she made her international debut at the senior level 11TH South Asian Games in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in which the Indian team won a gold. In the same year, she also played for India at the inaugural SAFF Women’s Championship in Bangladesh. It was also one of her most memorable tournaments. The Indian national team won the tournament—that had 8 nations as participants ((India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan, and Bhutan)—defeating Nepal 1-0, thanks to a 65th-minute goal by Mallik. She was also the top goal scorers in the tournament.
“The final match at Cox Bazar stadium was something that I would never forget. It was almost a draw but just then we got a penalty kick. I had to kick the ball into the goalpost that was placed a little more than the half-way mark on the field. It was quite a challenging distance to cover. When I kicked the ball from left side, for a few moments I was zoned out. I could not register where the goal post was or anything around me. It was just a kick and as I stepped back, I saw my manager cheering up and saying—it’s a goal!” she recollected during an interview with SSI. So far, she has scored 40 goals in 38 matches for India. She has also captained India women’s national football team several times since 2011. Mallik is only the second player from Odisha after Shradhanjali Samantray to have become the captain of the Indian women’s team.
She helped Indian win Gold in the 11th South Asian Games in Bangladesh in 2010. In this tournament, she had scored five goals in five matches.
In 2014, she represented India in the 17th Asian Games in South Korea, where she played three matches against Maldives, South Korea and Thailand and scored five goals against Maldives. She also represented India in AFC Women’s Asia Cup (qualifiers) in Palestine in 2013.
‘It isn’t over yet….’
Revealing her comeback plan, Mallik said she would return to the field as a coach. “When we started playing, women players always had to face the hurdle of infrastructure. We never got to practise in bigger grounds. Sometimes, all that we had was a ground which wasn’t even sufficient to hold a 5 by 5 match. But today, players have access to proper ground, diet and training,” she said, while revealing that as a coach she would want to share whatever she has learnt from the sport with the budding players.
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