Training The Next Generation
Kimberly Fernandez, India
Kimberly Fernandez is a footballer, entrepreneur, and coach from Mumbai in India, who has also been a FIFA Volunteer. She is the Co-Founder of Zars Sports Academy, which makes sports programs accessible to children across the city with an emphasis on providing opportunities for women to work in sport and girls to play sport.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your current football life?
I am Kimberly Fernandez from Mumbai in India, and contrary to popular belief I love football! (Yes, I am a ‘girl’ from ‘India’ and I play ‘football’). I grew up playing football with the boys that my dad used to coach. My dad is my biggest inspiration.
Football is a huge part of my life. I have made friends who are like family, travelled to places and learnt about life through experiences all whilst playing the beautiful game.
I am currently an entrepreneur - I run a grassroots developmental football academy in Mumbai, and also a professional footballer. I used to play for FC Goa. I also do a lot of cool freelance work in sport. For example, I worked on the AFC Women's Asian Cup in media and broadcast, and volunteered at the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in the Competitions team and at the FIFA World Cup in 2022 as a Team Leader!
What has your football journey been like up until now?
My football journey has been somewhat similar to most girls in India - learning to play the sport while playing amongst boys, because there just were not enough girls (or not any at all) playing football around me. But on the other hand my journey was very unique compared to most other girls my age when we were growing up, because my parents were extremely supportive of me playing and working in football. Most other girls do not have that luxury here unfortunately. They often have to hide the fact that they play football or lie about when they are going to football games.
There are the usual societal views and beliefs that mean it is not acceptable for a girl to play football. It is often frowned upon. And until very recently, a woman working in football was not always supported. Playing with boys would often come with snide comments and remarks and being ignored until I would make a really good pass or nutmeg one of them and earn myself some respect. But things have started to change, for sure.
What did you try to capture with your photos? Was there a wider meaning?
I tried to capture the landscape of women’s football and girls playing football across India. It is 100% passion driven. Women’s football is quite prominent in cricket crazy India!
Some photos were taken at our football training sessions at Zars Sports Academy in Mumbai, with our U12 girls coached by our female coaches such as coach Deniese. Some were also taken at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. This was the first ever major women's tournament to be held in India. The tournament was held in Mumbai. Other photos were taken in Goa with the FC Goa Women’s Team. Goa is known as India’s football crazy state.
Lastly, you can see the Maharashtra Senior Women’s Team training and selection camp, which was in Mumbai. Girls from across the state live and train together over one month. We also created history at that tournament by making it to the quarter finals, which was the first time the Maharashtra Women’s Team achieved that. Facilities are very basic here, and we do not get paid. We often have to leave our jobs for these camps, because no one is going to just give you two months off work. It is pure passion.
Are there any stories connected to the people you photographed?
Vanshi and the U10 girls that we coach have been training with us since 2019. What started with their parents' love for football grew into the girls believing they could be footballers too. They have not stopped training since!
These girls and girls their age across the country fall in love with football for the pure joy that the sport brings them. These girls belong to the most important group that is part of our Zars Sports Academy in Mumbai, coached by female coaches. They are our motivation to continue spreading the love and joy of football across the country.
What are the opportunities for women and girls to play or work in sports in your community?
The opportunities are scarce, there is the usual disapproval from parents and society, and often no career path due to the lack of money to be earned from sport and the lack of investment in sport, but over time this is changing. There are trailblazers who are starting to make careers out of sport, creating academies for girls in sport, creating opportunities for women to work in sport, and advocating for women and girls in sport.
Football is empowering, it is breaking barriers, it is empowering women and girls to change the norm, dream big and pave new paths for themselves. Every once in a while we are etching our place in history as women playing or working in football in India.
What does football mean to you?
Football means empowerment to me, in every form. When I play, when I coach kids in football, when I work in football. It brings joy and happiness to me and that feeling is so empowering because through football I am able to impact the lives of too many others.
I also believe that football can help change people’s lives. We started Zars Sports Academy by hosting events for amateur athletes and within a few months we realised that we wanted to make a bigger impact. My dad, who is also a football coach, suggested we start offering coaching as a service to kids across the city.
We grew with the mission of reaching out to kids to introduce them to sport (not necessarily train them to be professional athletes) and to encourage them to live healthy lives by playing a sport. We realised that the rate of inactivity in adolescents is alarmingly high and wanted to nip the problem in the bud. The majority of the kids enrolled at our academy are between 3 and 7 years old.
Along with that we were passionate about empowering women through sport and wanted to create the opportunity for women to work in sport as coaches, administrators and in any capacity related to the development of sport. We also were able to fund their coaching education and grow to a team of 10 female coaches. Over the years we have worked with women who have coached with us full time or part time and have definitely sparked their interest in working in the sports industry.
What ambitions do you have for the future?
I would like to make a bigger and more significant impact through football in India and across the world. I would like to empower women to work, play and coach in football. I would like the world to know that Indian women play football and they are just as good as the women in Europe or the USA, if you give them the chance, the facilities and the opportunities.
What do you think the future looks like for football in your community? What would you like to change?
The future is very bright for football in my community. There is change, it is slow and steady, but it is inevitable. People are more welcoming to the idea that women can play football, can be coaches (on par with the men), that women can coach boys and that women can make a career in sport.
I would like to change the mindsets of people. A lot of parents believe that a woman cannot or should not coach their sons in sport. Women are teachers in the classroom and they have wholeheartedly accepted that, so what is different about women being teachers in the form of coaches in sport?
