Upto 24 women football players are learning finer points of modern football at a training camp under the supervision of visiting German coach Monika Staab here at Punjab stadium. The week-long camp is a part of Pakistan Football Federation's endeavour to build up a women team to take part in upcoming international friendlies.
The foreign coach picked the 24 players in the third National Women Football championship held in August. Monika, whose arrival in Pakistan has spurred the girls, said, "It's very exciting for the girls to learn high profile football. I am helping them and there is a lot of interest among them to show improvement. PFF is serious about escalation of women soccer and I have come to know that foreign women-soccer elite visited Pakistan like Philippine's Cristina Ramos and Qatar's Dr Aneesa Al Hitmi. Women soccer is new in Pakistan and in order to put scattered girls into firm platform, such training camps are required".
She said the main thing was that women football was following an upward trend in Pakistan which became possible because of solid efforts of PFF under the leadership of its President Faisal Saleh Hayat.
"I have noticed that girls in this part of world have love, commitment and eagerness for taking up football as a sport. It is a healthy sign which should be encouraged by having maximum football activities for girls," she added. The camp will conclude on December 19.
24 PLAYERS NAMES:
Karachi's Diya WFC: Faryal Shah, Mariam Laghari, Sara Barkat Ullah, Misha Ghaffar, Humaira Nazir, Hina Javed.
Lahore's SSWFC: Shakeela Rehman, Ishrat Fatima, Naima Mukhtar, Ayesha Ikram, Samia Ehsan.
Balochistan: Rifat Mehdi, Shahida, Sohaila Irfan, Shahlyla Irfan.
Punjab: Sobia Yunus, Rafia Perveen, Asma Kiran.
Pakistan Wapda: Kirin Illyas, Khadija Anjum.
Islamabad: Mejzghan Orakzai.
Sindh Red: Naila Rani.
Mardan FC: Asma Tehseen.
Islamabad's Rising Star WFC: Sahar Zaman.