Young MVP Lynda Kom eyeing more glory for Indian women's football

With this maiden trophy, there emerged a group of Indian lionesses that is egging to further their performance and bring the country more laurels on the international stage. The Golden Boot winner and Most Valuable Player from that winning group is a young Manipuri Lynda Kom Serto, who took the honours with five strikes, including a hat-trick against Nepal. And just like the Khasi translation of Ibha or “one with good vision and judgment”, the young striker is ready to better her tally in the upcoming event.

“I always want to score more goals than I did last game. It’s not always possible to do that, but it’s a good aim to have,” the young striker told the TOI. Hailing from the Khoirentak Khunou village in Manipur and the youngest of four siblings, her mother runs a stationery store while her father is a farmer.

Like most sporting heroes of her gender and hailing from her state, Lynda’s journey in football, too, began playing alongside boys in a ground close to her house. “Girls did not really play football in my hometown, it was only the boys. So my father would always shout at me after I came back home.

He would tell me to study hard and pursue academics, rather than get into sports. But I always wanted to play,” she recalled. Her determination, however, kept her in the sport and she was soon enrolled into SAI Imphal after going for the trials at the academy and her parents became a little more supportive in her endeavour.

In 2017, she represented India for the first time at the SAFF U-15 Women’s Championship in Bangladesh and it changed the narrative at her home too. “I was really happy and so were my parents. I think they understood the scope of football, and they have been very supportive of me ever since.