Moushumi Murmu: Salboni’s civic volunteer turned India’s women football team player – GetBengal story
Tilakhula in Salboni is a tiny hamlet tucked in the heart of the deep forests of Jungle Mahal in West Midnapore district.Far from the madding crowd, life is tough there. People are resilient and work hard from dawn to dusk to make ends meet. However, nothing can crush their indomitable spirits and here amid hardships and deprivation, stars like Moushumi Murmu are born. When they have a dream, they nurture it and go all out to counter every obstacle that comes their way until they fulfill their dream, their ambition. Life is an uneven battle in these deep dense jungles and only the brave takes up the cudgels and wields it stringently to come out trumps. Moushumi strongly believes in the adage, “Football is like life. It requires perseverance, self-denial, hard work, sacrifice, dedication, and respect for authority,” and follows it to the T. Nineteen-year-old footballer Mousumi Murmu recently made her senior India debut at the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon on Friday, July 12, when the Indian senior women’s team played the second and last International friendly match against Myanmar.
Moushumi’s father Sujit Murmu is a sharecropper who struggles to eke out a living by cultivation which is again, seasonal. For the rest of the year, he does odd jobs to make ends meet. His wife, Arati Murmu, was an athlete who played at the district level. Little Moushumi was inspired by her mother to take up athletics in school at a very young age and showed promise. However, by the time she was in Class VI, she was buoyed by her elder brother, footballer Subrata Murmu, Moushumi shifted to football from athletics and started learning the basics of the game from her elder brother and a dedicated local coach, Narayan Singh. Singh made her play with older boys which helped her develop strength, endurance, and stamina. These came in handy when she started playing with girls. Later she practiced at Jagoran Football Academy at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Stadium in Shalboni.
In fact, ever since ShalboniJagaran Football Academy was set up to search for young raw talent and nurture them and empower them, many talents have emerged from Jungle Mahal and a large number of them are playing for the state and even at national level. Moushumi, too, is a talented player who has emerged fromJagaran Football Academy. She has already represented the state and now with her inclusion in the Indian Women’s Squad that participated in the two FIFA-friendly matches against host Myanmar, she has made her state and country proud with her achievements.
In 2017, Moushumi came to Kolkata from Salboni and was signed as a regular player by the Police Club. She played all the matches for Police in the women’s football league and got appreciation from the coaches and Kolkata clubs. In its aftermath, East Bengal took her under its wing to train her and play in its women’s football team.
Moushumi is a natural player and when she was put under the tutelage of former India international player and coach of East Bengal as well as the present senior women’s Bengal team, Sujata Kar, her skills improved remarkably. A right-winger, it was easy for Moushumi to grasp the technique of the game, especially of a striker, as Sujata Kar was also a successful striker in her time. Moushumi’s speed and scoring ability within the box improved remarkably under Kar’s coaching. However, there is still a lot of scope for improvement in off-the-ball movement.
MaymolRockey, the Under-20 National Women’s Team coach also noticed Moushumi’s skills and praised her for her sincerity and effort on the field during her stint with the national team. She especially pointed out her speed down the flanks and advised her to work on it further to sharpen it more.
A die-hard fan of Brazilian star Neymar Da Silva, Moushumi watches Neymar’s training videos whenever she gets time and tries to apply his dribbling style and off-the-mark speed in her training. She is one of Bengal’s most promising female footballers who first drew the attention of the football fraternity by scoring 13 goals in the Kolkata Premier Women’s football league last season. Then she mesmerized football aficionado by another impressive show when she wore the Bengal women squad’s jersey in the Khelo India Youth Women’s Football Championship held in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh in February 2023. This was the first time in the last five years when Bengal team reached the final before losing to Manipur. However, Moushumi, playing as a striker, dished out an impressive show in the competition, scoring four goals. Then the teenage striker represented India in the recently concluded AFC Under-20 Championship (between March 3 – 16, 2024) held in Uzbekistan where eight teams participated for the top slot.
The Indian senior women's team Head Coach LangamChaoba Devi inducted Moushumi as part of the 23-member Indian Women’s Squad that participated in the two FIFA-friendly matches against host Myanmar on July 9 and 12. In the first match held on July 9, India conceded a late goal to suffer a 1-2 defeat at the hands of Myanmar. This was India's fifth defeat to Myanmar in six matches. In their last meeting, India held Myanmar to 3-3 draw in the AFC Women's Olympic Qualifiers in Mandalay in 2019. However, in the second and last International friendly match held at the Thuwunna Stadium in Yangon on Friday, July 12, the Indian senior women’s football team held Myanmar to draw 1-1.
In an improved performance from their 1-2 defeat on Tuesday, Indian girls dominated the first half in a rain-lashed kick-off but were kept at bay by a tight Myanmar defense and a waterlogged penalty area. India’s head coach LangamChaoba Devi made a solitary change in the line-up in the last match, replacing Sandhiya Ranganathan with KarishmaShirvoikar. Moushumi Murmu came on in the second half to make her impressive senior India debut.
Moushumi’s induction in the senior team has naturally boosted her morale and she is all charged up and roaring to go. She works as a Civic volunteer at Shalboni Police Station but she plans to hone her skills further and turn into a professional footballer like her male counterparts, which will get her the moolah she rightly deserves to lead a better life. However, for the time being, she is working hard to improve her skills and ensure her place in the senior national team.
