CHENNAI: The Indian Women’s League is the most significant event for women’s football in India and Tamil Nadu’s Sethu FC, and the girls are slaying it, going on an invincible run with zero defeats and a dream to lift the trophy for the second time.
Sethu FC currently ranks second on the table after Gokulam Kerala FC, with the same points while the latter is slightly better on goal difference. Sandhiya Ranganathan, the skipper of Sethu FC says she has given her all to the team and still has more to prove herself this season. “Our team’s been outstanding this season without any seniors’ guidance. Back in 2019, when we won the league for the first time, we got many senior Indian national team players and now, in 2022, we’re full of young and inexperienced power. Still, we have to prove to everyone that we can win without any seniors, that too under my captaincy.” says the 23-year-old forward.
The Cuddalore-born baller says that she and her teammates struggled a bit at the start of the season but soon found their rhythm. “Some of the other Indian nationals and I returned to the club after finishing a camp and we found many new faces in our team. It was difficult for us to communicate with each other and this affected our chemistry on the pitch in the initial stages of the season. After some sessions, we found our team chemistry and it’s been all good since then,” says Sandhiya.
“Winning one game motivates us to succeed more and more,” says the captain. “Everyone on our team’s doing really well. Specifically Durga, Karthika Angamuthu, and Elizabeth Kioko have all been extraordinary this season. Especially Kioko’s performing consistently well and a great team player too,” she says.
Though soaring to great heights currently, Sandhiya’s life has been rather trying. Losing her father at a small age, poverty became a big concern for their family. Sandhiya’s mother entrusted her to a government hostel where she could stay and study. She spent most of her childhood days inside the walls of the hostel which made her think about places outside the hostel. Her seniors would go to other states for football tournaments and that made her enter the footballing world in Class 6.
It’s been a fairytale journey for Sandhiya since then. She was called up for U14 and U16 national teams twice but almost didn’t join on account of not having a passport then. “To play in the IWL, a passport is a must-have. My club and coach arranged for my passport and I could finally join the national team,” says Sandhiya. In 2018, Sandhiya got called up again and this time, there was no stopping her.
Sandhiya scored her first goal in 2018 in the COTIF Women’s Football Tournament for the Blue Tigresses. She also won the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award in IWL 2019 and emerged as the top scorer in the 2021 Senior Women’s National Football Championship.
She has her eyes on a government job and wishes to get it through football. But there is another wrinkle yet to be solved. “The appointment age for many departments is below 24 and I’m already 23. I’m worried,” she says.