Anupam Nidhi, Sweety Devi, Maharani Nivritti Kumari, AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey, the Hindustan Zinc officials, and the trainees at the launch of Zinc Football Girls Academy in Zawar Mines on Thursday.
| Photo Credit: Kamesh Srinivasan
The captain of the Indian women’s football team Sweety Devi interacted with the trainees at the launch of the Zinc Football Girls Academy at the Zawar Mines here on Thursday.
Sweety told the 20 girls, chosen in the under-15 age group for the academy — the first of its kind in the country, the pride she and the national team had felt by beating Thailand “in their ground, in front of their people” to qualify for the AFC Cup.
“Our dream is to play in the World Cup. It will be tough teams to play in Australia to qualify, but we have time to prepare till March,” said Sweety.
She was particularly impressed with the F-Cube technology used for training at the academy, with a digital wall, on which the trainees were bombarding their shots, offering varied data and scientific analysis for speedy development of players.
“We are working hard to make life easy for you in future. We didn’t have such technology, but we train with such intensity and are so tired that we don’t remember that we have a mobile phone.
“We have no distraction. It is amazing that you have such technology to train at the grassroots level. We need such training centres in different parts of the country, and for girls,” said Sweety.
The president of the All India Football Federation (AIFF), Kalyan Chaubey lauded Hindustan Zinc for the initiative and expressed confidence that in five years time many girls from the academy would represent the country.
Kishore Kumar, the chief operating officer of Hindustan Zinc, said that the success of developing around 200 boys at the centre since 2017 had prompted the team to focus on women empowerment and inclusivity.
The objective of the academy was nicely expressed in the slogan, “Desh ka sapna, Goal apna”.
Priya Agarwal Hebbar , chairperson Hindustan Zinc, sought guidance from AIFF, and assured that the organisation was willing to do everything to develop the 20 girls who have the passion and determination to excel in the game, and emerge as strong personalities.
Maharani Nivritti Kumari Mewar appreciated the efforts and said that sports like football taught so much, and played such a significant part in the lives of youngsters, especially in ensuring good mental health.
“Football means team work, and it teaches you to be selfless in achieving the collective goal. For the girls, it will be a great way to be physically strong,” said Nivritti Kumari.
In due course, the academy aspires to accommodate 60 girls, and the work on developing the residential infrastructure was already in progress.
Kishore Kumar assured that there was no dearth of resources and the organisation was willing to “scale up” the efforts to strengthen the grassroots of Indian football.
Published – July 31, 2025 06:50 pm IST
