From Haryana to World Cup dream: Ravi Punia’s mission to transform girls’ lives through football

Ravi Punia coached HOPS FC to earn promotion to the Indian Women’s League. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

In Haryana’s Alakhpura village, the day begins long before sunrise. Young girls wake up, finish household chores, head to agricultural fields and only if time and their families permit, they lace up their boots

For most among them, the dream dies quietly. For a few, it leads to a football pitch, and eventually a life they had barely imagined. Pooja is one of them, who represents India’s under-20 team. Her passport now has stamps for international travel. A few years ago, the walls of her house barely had paint.

Football training for girls at Haryana Sports Department. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

“I feel very proud that Pooja shone through at Dadra and Nagar Haveli and went on to play for India (under-20) and continues to be a regular in the team,” says Ravi Kumar Punia, one of her earliest coaches.

Punia, a former centre-back, has traded his boots for a coach’s whistle and has made it his mission to identify talents like Pooja out of rural India. At HOPS FC, an Indian Women’s League (IWL) side, the aim is not just football but livelihood.

“In North India, the biggest problem is society: orthodox families. It is very difficult to bring girls out to play football,” Punia tells Sportstar. “For this, my biggest aid has been Sonika Bijarnia. She’s been a prominent coach in the Haryana Sports Department. I would like to give her full credit because she did a lot to try to bring these girls out to play. Only when they come out to play can we think of further development and strategies.”

Punia has credited Sonika Bijarnia, centre, for her role in developing women’s football in Haryana. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Bijarnia has worked on women’s football development in Alakhpura for over a decade, scouting and nurturing India regulars like Sanju Yadav, who played in the Women’s Asian Cup, and Pooja, a member of India’s under-20 Women’s Asian Cup squad that played in Australia earlier this year.

Pooja was part of the first team Punia coached — the under-17 women’s side of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

“Pooja is like my daughter. Her mother is a maid,” he says. “Pooja, among several others from that team, would wake up early in the morning, practice, work in the fields, and then go to school. After returning, they would do household chores, practice again, and return home to help in the kitchen. As you know, recovery time is pivotal in football, especially in women’s football.”

Despite the limited preparation and recovery time, Pooja shone, starring in the final and scoring the winning goal against Bihar. “She was rewarded by the government, kept on playing, and kept on earning laurels. Now, she has her own house, and one of her sisters is married. That’s the impact football has had on her family,” Punia says with a smile.

He has witnessed several such stories. He helped Haryana finish second and third in consecutive editions of the Women’s Senior National Championship (Rajmata Jijabai Trophy) and helped Uttar Pradesh win bronze in the same tournament last season. “Sonakshi Singh, Sushmida Vishwakarma, Muskan Khan — all are in the UP police because we won the Bronze medal at the Rajmata Jijabai Trophy. And I feel very proud when they call me up to say that the sport has given them a new direction,” Punia says.

Perhaps there is some vindication in it for him. The 33-year-old was part of Rajasthan United when it won the I-League Qualifiers in 2021, securing a spot in the then top flight of men’s football. But anterior cruciate ligament injuries in both knees disrupted his playing career before he switched to coaching in women’s football.

Ravi Punia was a centre-back during his playing days. But injuries disrupted his career before switching to coaching. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

“Whoever starts playing football in India wants to play for the national team. And I want my girls to play not just for India, but to represent it at the World Cup,” Punia says. “There are people who’ll laugh at me, but I’m telling you our girls can achieve it, and I want to be part of it. This is my dream, and I will fulfil it in the future. I feel what I could not do; I want them to do that thing.”

With Punia as coach, Haryana won gold in women’s football at the National Games for the first time in 2025, with most players from that team getting government jobs. But HOPS, where he served as assistant coach in the 2023-24 season, was relegated. Having completed his AFC A-Licence course in January 2026, Punia found his next calling. “I promised our owner, Sanjay ji (Yadav), that we would get back on top,” he says.

Between March 20 and May 10, HOPS played nine matches, won all of them, scoring 14 goals and conceding just one. In three months, HOPS was back in the top flight, the IWL. With the team’s junior side, he won the inaugural edition of the AIFF U-17 Women’s Youth League in July and reached the final of the AIFF U-15 Women’s Youth League last month.

“We will try our best to win the IWL this time. I have had a chat with the club management, and we are looking for a top-two finish. If we win, we will look to compete in the AFC Women’s Champions League,” Punia says. “In women’s football, we have to think beyond the SAFF Championship. We have to think of the Asian Cup and the World Cup. Our girls have a lot of potential.”

Ravi Punia, left, in conversation with one of his players at HOPS FC. | Photo Credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Pooja, now Punia’s trusted apprentice at HOPS, remains part of the journey he has set out on – one that extends beyond winning the IWL, one that ends with a historic World Cup spot. The upcoming IWL season is another step on that road.

For the girls of Alakhpura, beauty, as it turns out, was never the point. The point was the way out.