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Fouzia Mampetta, the pioneer in women’s football in Kerala, at 49 passed away battling cancer. In the field, she appeared as a player and later as a football coach. 

Football is an emotion in northern Malabar and Fouzia, growing up in Malappuram’s Tirur, was easily enchanted by the ball game.  She would eagerly hang around near the local grounds in her brother's boots, hoping for someone to call her in. “But no one was willing to teach football to a girl. They were not scared of me, but did not want me. But my father, who was in the Gulf, always encouraged me. During a vacation, he convinced my brothers and cousins to teach me football and let me to the ground,” she said to Dool News.

She was permitted to the playground on conditions - to be dressed in full pants with a headscarf and confine herself to the goal post. She did not turn down the offer. “I was in the field at last. I knew from thereon, no one could stop me from playing the game,” she said.

At 16, she played in the junior state team in Kolkata. Her shot-stopping skills and readiness to perform the stopper’s duties, striding out of her six-yard confinement to thwart rival forays, won admiration and attention. Fouzia was regarded as the best goalkeeper, as she took Kerala to a runners-up finish. 

Fouzia did not stop herself with football. She went on to learn judo, handball, weightlifting and powerlifting. She had won several medals for the state. 

In 1996, after her marriage, she had to disconnect herself for a short while. But she was soon back at the field after her divorce. 

She not only came back to football but also pioneered herself as a football coach. “There was neither encouragement nor infrastructure for women’s football. I wanted to change that,” Fouzia said.

She took up a job at the Nadakkavu Girls High School in Kozhikode and started her career as a football coach. In just two years she made her team district champions. By 2006, her enterprise paved the way for four of her wards into the Kerala team. Soon, she was appointed the assistant coach of the state women’s team, which finished third in the 2005 Senior National Championship and runners-up the next year. The same year, two of her students, VM Ashley and T Nikhila, got picked for the national team. 

For most of her wards, Fouzia was more than a coach or mentor, she was a mother and an inspiration too. “She taught us to be brave, humble and fight till the very end. The values she had taught us will remain in us forever,” Theertha, one of her students, told Dool News.