BHUBANESWAR 11-Aug-2014 120
The All India Football Federation has appointed former Odisha woman football star Sradhanjali Samantray as the assistant coach of national under-16 girls team for the AFC U-16 Qualifiers, schedule to be held in Bangladesh from October 14 to 23.
This will be the first international assignment for former India woman football captain Sradhanjali, who represented the country for a decade. According to Football Association of Odisha secretary Sanjay Behera, Sradhanjali, who is a C-Licensed AFC coach, will leave Bhubaneswar on Tuesday to attend a refresher course for coaches to be held at Mumbai from August 12 to 14.
She will then supervise the selection trial of the India U-16 probables at SAI Centre, Gandhi Nagar (Gujarat) from August 20 to 28 and the coaching-cum-preparatory camp at the same place from August 28 to September 12.
After ending her 14-year-long playing career, the unassuming Sradhanjali took to coaching and proved equally good in the profession by guiding an inexperienced Odisha team to the final of last Senior National Women Football Championship in Assam.
An employee of National Aluminium Company (Nalco), Samantaray believes the maiden international assignment as coach will further enrich her knowledge and experience. ``Be a player or coach, learning football is a never-ending process. I want to learn about the sport throughout my lime. The national duty as an assistant coach will be a new opportunity to serve the game and the country in a new capacity and I will try my best to help India qualify for the next stage of the AFC U-16 Qualifiers,`` said Samantaray, a spinster, who, however, has embraced football as her life partner.
