Coach Keshika’s dream is to train football players who can represent the country at international events. Photos: Keshika Subbarao
“Even though I rarely receive discrimination from the players, I have been on the receiving end of it from some of the players’ parents. They aren’t used to seeing, or have never experienced having, a female coach. In the past, there were complaints as some parents did not want a woman to coach their child,” revealed Keshika in an email interview.
“I’ve also experienced difficulty working with peers who are condescending. Some have tried to bully me to get me out of my job. These additional challenges make it even harder for women to get into and stay in this profession,” Keshika lamented. Then, while pursuing her A-Levels in England, and later her law degree at Anglia Ruskin Uni-versity in East Anglia, she worked as a part-time football writer at sports media platforms like Britain’s Football Talk, Oxford United Foot-ball Club, Peterhead Football Club and Italy’s Forza Italia Football.
Despite her bittersweet journey, Keshika gets a kick out of it. To her, football isn’t just a game but also a channel to do good. She’s volunteered as a youth football coach for the Asian Football Confeder-ation’s Protect The Goal campaign to raise awareness of HIV. “We also need to challenge existing gender norms and roles within society. Sports provides a space in which women and girls can renegotiate concepts of femininity and masculinity, challenge stereotypes that label women as weak and inferior, and demonstrate to their communities what they are capable of achieving.
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