One of Sri Lanka’s leading football clubs, Renown SC, has triggered the country’s first professional team for women who are being called the Special Blossoms adding a new chapter to their 40-year history.
Renown has in the process produced a polished set of six Special Blossoms who are members of the Sri Lanka Under-19 squad following in the footsteps of past men’s players who went on to wear the Sri Lanka jersey under the guidance of coaches in the mould of Albert Fernando, Edward Jayawardena and Edward Wickramasuriya.
The six players were selected from a final pool of 50 Sri Lankan aspirants. One of the girls, Maleeka Amith, was selected to be part of the pilot Asian Football Confederation eGoal programme that made her the first AFC Youth Ambassador for Sri Lanka. Another player Imesha Warnakulasuriya was selected to the Sri Lanka women’s team making it the first time that a girl from a football academy wore the national jersey.
The other four Sri Lanka youth players from the Renown Sports Club academy are Nimesha Sandaruwani, Uthpala Jayakody, Dulani Sandeepani and Rashmi Kaveesha.
The Renown Football Academy is recognised as one of the best nurseries in Sri Lanka and were the champions of the first ever inter academy tournament for boys conducted by Football Sri Lanka.
Their all-girl Polonnaruwa Football Academy, the first such institution in Sri Lanka, were the champions of the first ever inter academy tournament for girls and Renown has been promoting the girls game in Colombo, Kalutara, Kegalle, Anuradhapura and several other parts of the country through academies, training programmes, coaching workshops and donation of equipment.
Vincent Peiris the President of Renown Football Academy said: “Girls football is in its infancy in Sri Lanka and the fact that girls are taking up football is a big achievement.
“Apart from Army, Navy and Air Force there are no other clubs which have a women’s team. In such a scenario girls playing football is because of the passion they have for football.
“We are already supporting girls’ football at school level and Sri Lanka’s first professional women’s club was initiated so that there would be a pathway for girls coming through our football development programme to be a professional player.”