J&K’s first female football coach: Nadiya Nighat is inspiring over 300 female footballers. When I started playing football I was just one girl among 47 boys. I had to adjust and make a lot of changes and be like a boy to gel with the boys, said 28-year-old Nadiya Nighat, a female football coach in Jammu & Kashmir. Today, I can say wth pride that I am successful. I will not say that I lost anything by coming to the field. Whatever has happened has been for my own good, Nadiya said. At the age of 19, I became Kashmir’s only female football coach, said Nadiya Nighat. I was of playing age at that time. It was my dream to represent India as a player. But girls were not coming to play football. So I had to become a coach to get them interested in football. I have put up football coaching camps in border areas of J&K like Tangmarg, Gurez and Kupwara to give girls and boys the knowlege of football, and just to persuade more girls into this sport. Today. more than 300 girls play this game, said the first female football coach from J&K Nadiya Nighat.