Dribblers from the City of Ruins
Young talented girls from Polonnaruwa chasing football dreams
A video clip circulating in the social media of a young girl dribbling and juggling the football, has gone viral. Digging deep it was identified that the girl was Sasindi Nimsara, a 12- year- old who represents Bandiwewa Maha Vidyalaya in Polonnaruwa.
But going more deep, it was revealed that Sasindi was a student of Polonnaruwa Girls’ Football Academy ( PGFA), run by its Head Coach Pubudu Saman Paranagama, who also happens to be the football coach at Bandiwewa MV.
What Paranagama related about his initiative of 2017, was more appealing, encouraging and at the same time heartbreaking. Paranagama is a Physical Training Instructor attached to Bandiwewa MV, since 2012, where he developed a penchant to coach football.
He then started coaching Medirigiriya National School in 2014 before obtaining his Asian Football Confederation ( AFC) ‘B’ License in 2016, the year Paranagama started coaching Bandiwewa MV. During this period he observed the enthusiasm among young girls for football as they spent more time to learn about the game.
“I observed that there were equal number of girls who are keen in football alongside boys. Generally most of these youngsters come from middle or low income families, and parents are able to provide the basic needs of their children. Then I gathered parents of girls from schools to see if they are interested in sending their girls to an academy to learn more about football, and the response was quite impressive,” Paranagama stated.
It took some months to plan out matters, but in 2017 Paranagama was able to initiate the Polonnaruwa Girls’ Football Academy, one of the 14 dedicated for girls football in the country and the only one available in the region. But the specialty of his academy is neither the coaches are paid, nor are the children charged.
“At the beginning there were 25 girls, a number I could manage. But as time passed by the number grew big, and I had to ask for the assistance of Ranjith Kumara, who stepped down after few years. Later Nuwan Thilaka Kumara volunteered. As the number reached 60 I had to seek assistance from more individuals. As a result two girls -- Dilhani Shanika and V. R. Pubudumali -- volunteered. Now we have a total of four coaches, including me,” Paranagama explained.
By now all of his three assisting coaches have fulfilled the AFC ‘ B’ License requirement, as the demand
keeps growing for more training sessions. The academy conducted training sessions only twice a week, sessions of two hours each, but by now it has been increased to two each day.
“We teach football from the basics, and continue to add segments according to the improvement of the girls, who are quick to catch up lessons. And it’s all improvements that I can see, almost every day from the girls. So I made ball training, juggling and dribbling mandatory, and to my surprise they mastered them with ease,” Paranagama went on to say, explaining the story behind the video of the young girl dribbling and juggling the ball for nearly 40 seconds.
Paranagama revealed that Sasindi is not the only one with this capability, and the academy has around 10 to 12 players who are brilliant in doing these kind of tricks. Among them are Pavani Nethmini Kaushalya, who is considered better than Sasindi, Dulani Sandeepani, Minoli Ahinsa, Senulmi Himasha and A. P. Erandika, who has individually made the PGFC proud by winning merits and awards.
When Dulani Sandeepani became the Under-12 Best Female Player in 2018, she earned a tour to Barcelona, Spain for a residential training programme. Minoli
Ahinsa was second from the whole island, but being team mates at Bandiwewa MV and PGFC, unfortunately she missed the Barcelona trip.
The girl in the video, Sasindi Nimsara became the Under-12 Best Female Player of the country in 2019 and she earned a tour to Barcelona, Spain for a residential training programme as Dulani. That year too, the second best was Bandiwewa MV and PGFC team mate Pavani Nethmini Kaushalya, who had to miss out the overseas training.
The academy produced the Best Player in Senulmi Himasha and Best Goalkeeper in A. P. Erandika in the Under- 14 age category at the All- Island Football Championship 2018. In addition PGFA became the Under- 14 champions of the Inter- Academy Championship held in Digana conducted by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka and runners- up at the Milo All- Island InterAcademy Under- 12 Championship in 2019.
The academy even produced a junior national player, when Nimesha Sandaruwani became the vice captain of the Sri Lanka Under- 16 team that contested at the SAFF Under- 16 Girls Football Championship in 2018.
These accolades prove the equal amount of commitment and dedication put out by the voluntary coaching staff and the 60 plus students of PGFC, which runs totally on trust and belief among each other. From the training of PGFC, the girls have become key components in their respective school teams.
Though the academy has grown into become a learning ground for beginners in girls football, it has one or two individuals who make contributions from time- to- time with equipments such as balls and cones. But in general the whole process and progress is run by a few volunteers.
“At the beginning, we had just one age category. But now we have four beginning with Under- 12 and above. The demand keeps growing, because of the talents that are coming out but unfortunately the academy too has its drawbacks when it comes to financial needs to buy equipment and take teams or players for matches or advance training programmes,” the coach lamented.
But the academy’s main aim is to help the underprivileged girls of the area with football talent, and guide them on a path with comprehensive training programme to the national level. Despite the slight hindrances they face, Paranagama and his team at PGFC are willing to move forward, to become an asset that provides to the national football stream.
“We need services of more coaches and equipment, but we are happy on the way we have continued. We are yet to mark our value as an academy to reckon with, but our aim is to make these girls shine as school players and make them more valuable players to the national stage. So far we have around 10 players who have the potential to reach the national team of respective age groups. We expect help from those who can, and even if help is beyond our reach, we will continue, as we did for the past three years,” Paranagama pledged.