On Top Of The World

Mingma Tenzing K.C, Nepal

Mingma Tenzing K.C is a football coach and alumni teacher with Teach for Nepal. Mingma leads a project in partnership with The Huracan Foundation that aims to use football to build strong female future leaders and community role models, in a country where many girls traditionally drop out of school early to marry and become housewives. 

Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your football life?

My name is Mingma Tenzing K.C. I am 25 years old and I just finished completing the 2-year fellowship program with Teach for Nepal, during which I was an English teacher in Bhotenamlang, a remote village in the district of Sindhupalchok. I never played football professionally, but I love football. I was in my school’s football team, my high school football team and even my college football team. Futsal has been very popular in our country the past 5 years and I’ve played in countless futsal tournaments since 2013. I have watched football and read about it since 2005, and have been playing football with bottle caps, tennis balls since 2002. I can proudly say that I am more than passionate about football.

Who is in the photos? Where were the photos taken?

In the photos we can see girls from five different rural villages from a remote location in Sindhupalchok. The district was severely affected in the 2015 earthquake. The photos were taken in a village called Bhotenamlang, where I organised a football tournament for girls who go to school. All of the girls are aged 13-16. 

What did you try to show with the photos? Was there any wider meaning with the photos?

All of the photos were taken at different times during the tournament. It was a two-day tournament and I was the event manager. I tried to show the different moments of the tournament. We can see girls or a group just walking, and I wanted to show the struggle of getting to our football ground. It is located 45 minutes uphill from where our school is and that is where all the players were staying. We had to finish eating breakfast and reach the ground by 8am in order to start our games by 9am. The ground is located at a height of 2000m. 

There was a team group huddle before a game between Team Huracan FC Nepal A and Team Bhotang. In the background you can see volunteers pouring water on the ground and just feel the excitement before the Final that decided who took home the shield.

You can also see one of the goalkeepers of a team watching as the team play. It was against Huracan FC Nepal B. The B team had a lot of younger students from grades 7 and 8 and the youngest player of the tournament was studying at grade 5. Everyone in the goalkeeper’s team were studying in grade 10.  We can see the shape of the pitch was rectangular, and we could take corner kicks from only one side of the pitch. You can see the edge of the pitch - if the ball dropped it would take at least 4-5 minutes to get it back up. Our volunteer ball boys in red at the end of the pitch are ready to jump for the balls.

There are also photos of the girls getting on the back of trucks after the tournament had finished. The girls and their teachers were going back to their villages which were 3-5 hours away, if you walked. On the back of the trucks it takes less than an hour for everyone to get home. In the back of one truck around 35 girls were being transported to four different villages.

Are there any good stories connected with the people or teams you photographed?

One inspiring story is of the girl who is goalkeeper and captain for Team Huracan FC B. They were unable to reach the finals as they lost out to another team by one point. During the whole tournament she showed such leadership and growth - I was astonished. Both her parents are farmers. She has two younger brothers. She does the majority of the household work as her parents are usually in the fields every single day. She used to be very timid and never took part in any activities in class. She would be absent constantly because of her work at home and she would never pass any exams.

After being part of the team, she showed such a transformation in two months. When she was selected to be the captain by her teammates, I think that's when she really started to believe in herself too. She became the captain of her house in school. She also was one of the hosts of the biggest educational fair in the entire district with around 5,000 people attending. Football has really changed her life.

What is your favourite photo?

This photo depicts so well the entire match. It was such a great match with both sides playing so well. It was so dramatic, the entire story behind it. Everyone thought these two teams would play in the final together because they were the best two teams of the entire league. However, they had to play each other before the final and it was a knock-out match between them. The entire game was so intense, and I was also the linesman. There was just so much drama after this photo was taken. 

The free kick that they shot actually went in and it tied the game. The worst part was that the ball went in and the referee didn't see it. He actually said, “goal kick” and the entire team went crazy and said that they would quit the tournament and go back home the very same day, and they were the team that came from the farthest village! They had walked for 5 hours to get to our village the day before. Then the goalkeeper who had literally touched the ball as it went in also denied that the ball went in.

The poor girl cannot be blamed in any way for trying to deny the goal because of the pressure she was under. Before coming for the tournament, they had been training every day for an entire month in order to win. The boys in their school had made comments before they left to come to our village. They said that the girls were not going to win under any conditions, that they would come back empty handed and they were only wasting time.

What's crazy is that I had seen the ball go in, but the referee had not, and he didn't even see me pointing my flag to the centre of the pitch which meant that I saw the goal. This was literally just the beginning of the many dramas to come in this entire match. If only we had a video recording of it.

Why is football so important for Nepal and its people?

Football has the ability to unite people and make people forget about the silly differences between them. In our country where each day many people face so many different challenges with the government being so corrupt and unstable, football is very important in the lives of the young and old generations. The passion runs so deep that many stay up until 1am to watch Champions League matches, so they are up all night watching football. 

Football is important because it unites us and brings all Nepalese together. For many years our national team has been a victim of corrupt leaders and was always in the news for bad reasons. But now it is looking better than ever. Children have dreams and hopes of someday playing in the national league, international leagues, and for the national team - which is very rare because it didn’t happen in previous times. There are new stadiums being built in different parts of the country.

Football is important to Nepalese because of the obvious reasons, it gives people something else to talk about instead of politics and it gives people something to believe in. In the most remote areas, you’ll see people having a football match between two different villages for a goat. You couldn’t make it up. It’s the most popular sport.

What role does football play in Nepalese society?

In Nepalese society football doesn’t play a major role. Society as a whole doesn’t look at football as the greatest career choice. We do live in a developing third world country and our Football Association (ANFA) is seen as a very corrupt organization. But in the remote areas a football match can be a big or mega event. There are countless football tournaments in the city areas too. But there isn’t a stable future and being a football player means you probably have to have another job and your future is also very uncertain.

What does football mean to you?

I’ve played football and have watched football my entire life. I am very active physically and play many other sports. Football is one of the most amazing things ever invented by mankind. When playing it all our worries go away. The score doesn’t really matter if you’re playing with the right team against the right opponents. Watching football and supporting football clubs outside of your country is just another way to fulfil our thirst for football. 

What is the future for Nepalese football?

The future for Nepalese football is as it is for all sports in Nepal. Our governance is very weak. It is very corrupt, and talent isn’t appreciated. Even players themselves don’t have the mentality to become great. They let fame get to their heads and forget that they rank 170 in the FIFA rankings. 

The parents of children must have dreams for their children to be football players. For parents to have that sort of mentality there should be opportunities when playing for a club or playing for your country. When the government decides to invest in football by planning for the future and not expecting results in a minute, the future of Nepali football will look great. But as things stand right now, we won’t climb above 150 in the next 10 years.