One to watch; Puspa Kumari Toppo

PUSPA KUMARI TOPPO, from the tiny tribal village of Hutup in Ormanjhi Block, attends 7th class at a local government school. She is the fourth daughter of Muni Devi, a midday meal cook at the local government school who earns Rs 500 ($11) per month, and Jhabu Oraon, a mason at a local hospital earning Rs 110 ($2.40) per day. Her family has one cow and two oxen, and two small fields where they grow rice, wheat and vegetables.
For Puspa, it’s been a big year. She has been with us since our first practice, barefoot, in a tattered yellow dress and red bandana – her uniform for six months – and she was the first chosen by the boys for their own team once they warmed to the idea of girls playing. Before December, she had rarely ventured outside her village, when she traveled to India’s premier football academy, Tata Football Academy (TFA), for a week-long training camp. Soon after, she was selected along with twelve teammates from Yuwa for the State Girls U13 team, and traveled to Tamil Nadu to represent Jharkhand at the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) National Football Festival.

She impressed national team scouts by launching a ball off her forehead (served up by her older sister Usha) past Bombay’s goalkeeper – one of her many goals of the tournament where and her teammates chalked up wins against bigger and more experienced teams from Bombay (8-1) and Delhi (3-0). She is one of fifty girls in India to be selected for the AIFF National Training Camp in Kerala, and if selected there, will travel to Sri Lanka to represent India.

Puspa is generally shy and quiet with adults, but on the field she lights up like a thousand lanterns. Slowly she has become a regular fixture at Yuwa Club’s afternoon study sessions as well. “I think studies are important, and I’m happy,” she says. “I want to be a good player and I feel very good. I was happy to score goals against Manipur (India’s top girls’ team). My mom and dad are also happy with me.”

Photo 1) Puspa (foreground) with teammates from Yuwa Adivasi Club (Photo credit: Ashok Nath Dey for The Hindustan Times)
Photo 2)Puspa studying at home (Photo credit: Ashok Nath Dey for The Hindustan Times)

Weekly on Volkskrantreizen.nl: article 13 (Dutch)

Jaap Scholten discloses Franz and Willem’s wild camping strategy in India. Click here for article 13 'On the road to Goa'

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Goa is de kleinste, de bekendste, de jongste en de rijkste deelstaat van India. Jaarlijks wordt Goa bezocht door 2 miljoen toeristen, waarvan een kwart veelal westerse backpackers. Goa staat ook op het programma van My game is Beautiful, maar daarvoor moeten Willem Grimminck en Franz Gastler wel eerst even 1200 kilometer op de motor. “We keken er naar uit om naar Goa te gaan, en dat precies 500 jaar nadat de Portugezen er voet aan land zetten. In Goa willen we ontdekken wat er mogelijk is voor meidenvoetbal in India. Daarnaast zijn we ook erg benieuwd naar de stranden en de hippieachtige cultuur die er zou heersen.” Woorden van Willem, maar voor er tegen een bal wordt getrapt moet eerst 1200 kilometer dwars door Maharashtra worden gereden, de droom van iedere motorrijder. Lees verder.