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The five-day Women In Sports Elite Football Trials, which is in its second edition, commenced on Friday, June 30, at the AIFF's National Centre of Excellence in New Town, Kolkata.
Last year's camp received an outstanding response with ample national team players joining the process.
Coaches from various foreign clubs trained the girls and ultimately two of them, Soumya Guguloth and Jyoti Chauhan, secured professional contracts at Dinamo Zagreb, the Croatian heavyweights.
However, in an exclusive conversation with Sportskeeda, Sanaya Mehta, the founder of Selvel’s Women In Sports Forum, underlined that the story of Soumya and Jyoti wasn't the only takeaway from the previous edition.
"What really came out from the camp was not just Jyoti and Soumya joining Zagreb, of course, that's the ultimate aim, but we saw a bunch of other players who were there in our camp last year, show great improvement in their IWL seasons as well," she stressed.
The five international clubs whose head coaches have traveled to Kolkata for this edition are Western United Football Club, Dinamo Zagreb, Adelaide United FC, Marbella FC, and Perth SC.
If the players can impress the coaches then they could land an opportunity to train or even earn a professional contract with any of the clubs. Among the 28 participants in this edition, 18 are players who have represented the national team and the rest are among those who have impressed in the recently-concluded Indian Women's League.
Asked about what was considered while selecting the choices of clubs for this edition of the tournament, Sanaya replied:
"For this edition, we had a very short window because it all was coordinated with the timing of the Indian Women's League, and that schedule came out really late in fact. We had hardly a month to coordinate and plan this trial so we reached out to a few clubs. We felt this was the best lot in terms of standard of playing, game time, and keeping everything else in mind."
Talking about the number of Australian clubs in the mix, three among five to be specific, the Director of Women in Sports averred:
"Also, this year we intentionally included a lot more Australian teams because the FIFA Women's World Cup is taking place there this year. So there's an additional requirement at the clubs where they are looking to bring in more players from outside."
The goal is to get as many girls professional contracts abroad: Director Sanaya Mehta on Women in Sports' vision
The Women In Sports as a collective has been facilitating budding footballers to pursue professional careers in clubs across the country and even abroad.
The scouting system for women footballers in the country is still at a primitive stage and hence there's a lot of room for untapped talents to be brought to the forefront.
Bala Devi's historic move to Rangers FC in Scotland was one of the major initiatives Sanaya and her team had undertaken.
"The goal is to get as many girls, as we can, professional contracts abroad. Obviously, there are no guarantees with this but the trials are done with the best of intentions. At the end of the day, it depends on how the girls perform, and what the coaches are looking for," Sanaya said while further explaining the ambition of Women In Sports.
The previous season was an overwhelming success but what was the feedback from the visiting last season, the founder underlined:
"The coaches were quite happy with the standard of play (in the last edition) and they were impressed. But we managed to get double the girls for this edition, so we're waiting with your fingers crossed to see how everything pans out."
Hope for everyone around the Indian footballing fraternity would be to see more girls plying their trade at internationally-acclaimed clubs and get the recognition the likes of Soumya Guguloth and Jyoti Chauhan have earned for their country.
