17-year-old Riddhi Vivek Pangare can kick a football farther than you can ever imagine. She recently participated in the Oorja — CAPF Under-19 Football Talent Hunt Tournament 2017 and her team won the first prize in Telangana.
Interestingly, the talent hunt was started by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to encourage young football players in the country. Though Riddhi couldn’t play the other rounds due to an injury, she was the only Hyderabadi in the team. “IPS G. Chandana Deepti, Superintendent of Police in Medak District, helped the entire team a lot during the tournament,” informs Riddhi.
“I knew I wanted to play football professionally when I was in Class eight,” says Riddhi, who is now a Class 12 MEC (Mathematics, Economics and Commerce) student at St. Ann’s College for Women in Mehdipatnam.
Prior to football however, Riddhi was into running and gymnastics. “When I was in Lalaji Memorial Omega International School in Chennai, my coach Gopinath encouraged me to play football. I went on to represent Tamil Nadu in the Nationals and won several state-level tournaments, but we had to move to Hyderabad a few years ago,” she says.
Talking about the status of women’s football, Riddhi says, “In the past, people thought that football wasn’t a game for women, but that attitude is changing now. I have seen some women play better football when compared to men.”
The youngster hopes to play for the Indian team one day. “After I’m done with my Class 12, I want to go abroad and train in football so that I can play for India’s Under-19 team. When I was recently injured, I felt really bad that I wasn’t fit enough. I also put on weight during my CBSE Board exams and my speed came down. Managing academics and training can be challenging. But when you are passionate about something, you can go ahead and pursue it no matter what,” says Riddhi, who now trains three days a week at an institute in Kondapur. In her free time, she admits that she loves to dance
