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Anair Lomba: La Liga Ambassador Opens Up on Vicente Ferrer Foundation, Indian Women's Football and More

And with a motto to eradicate that, La Liga has been working hands with Vicente Ferrer Foundation to develop local communities and integrate football at the grassroots levels.

La Liga Vicente Ferrer Foundation

There are many organizations that have devoted themselves to the improvement and evolution of Indian football.

The game of football is still at a nascent stage of flying in this country. With the abundance of talent in this country, things haven't gone too well for India when it comes to football.

The arrival of ISL has certainly helped, but it is still a long way to go. Amid this, the evolution of women's football is slowly making steps. With the vast pool of talent across the corners of the country, often they get lost due to a lack of proper infrastructure, financial backup and opportunities.

And with a motto to eradicate that, La Liga has been working hands with Vicente Ferrer Foundation to develop local communities and integrate football at the grassroots levels.

We recently met two imminent personnel of this programme through a virtual chat. Former Valencia and Espanyol Femenina player Anair Lomba, who is a La Liga Ambassador had a talk with MyKhel, so did Jose Antonio Cachaza, the Managing Director of La Liga India.

Here is an edited excerpt of the interactive chat-

Biggest Challenge in India and How they Resolved It:

MyKhel asked Anair Lomba about the biggest challenges they faced so far, and she says language was one of the biggest barriers she had to overcome.

"The main challenge I faced is language. It's been quite funny to speak in Telugu, but definitely, a challenge for me and I struggled at first. Sometimes I feel I want to say something, but it's not easy because our English is not good. But all about these days is wonderful. I just have good things to say about the girls, and the country. It is a wonderful experience and I am very happy to be here," Anair said.

The Importance of Educating the Parents:

The women's football still needs a lot of work as often the talents here get wasted due to a lack of support from the family which stems from a scarcity of financial resources. MyKhel asked Anair about the importance of educating the parents of those children to encourage their daughters to play football.

"The main thing is to educate the parents through the kids. This is just a game. Although you can be a professional, but it is important to study. I was a professional player but I continued my study as it was important to me. Hence both football and study can continue together and financial struggle shouldn't come in the way of it. The players have immense talent, they just need to focus," the Spanish footballer said.

Anair Lomba

Next Steps of the Vicente Ferrer Education:

MyKhel asked Jose Cachaza about the vision and the potential next step of the Vicente Ferrer Foundation, and he says the steps are not yet decided.

"We want to work in Anantapur for four to five years more. We are still shaping how we want to evolve. We can only publicly announce when we have the capacity to run a new project," Cachaza elaborated.

"Usually, in every country, we cooperate with one project. In India, we don't have the resources to create a new project. Our main aim here is to promote our competition, our clubs and Spanish Football at large. We are not an NGO ourselves," he concluded.

Story first published: Saturday, February 4, 2023, 13:25 [IST]
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