Manisha Kalyan (born 27 November 2001) is an Indian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

club Apollon and the India women's national team. She won the 2020–21 AIFF Women's Emerging Footballer of the Year award.

Early life

Manisha was born in Muggowal, located in the district of Horshiarpur,

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

. She studied in Sant Attar Singh Khalsa Senior Secondary School and graduated from Mehr Chand Mahajan DAV College for Women. She started playing football at the age of 13. Brahmjit Singh was the coach who spotted Kalyan's talent as a PE teacher at Government Middle School in her village Muggowal.

Club career

Gokulam Kerala

In 2018, Manisha signed with the newly formed

Indian Women's League The Indian Women's League, known as ''Hero Indian Women's League'' for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp is the women's top tier professional football league in Indian football. Founded in 2016, currently a total of 18 teams from across the ...

club Gokulam Kerala. She played a pivotal role in Gokulam's success in the 2019–20 IWL campaign. She scored 2 goals against the

Kenkre FC Mumbai Kenkre FC (also known as Kenkre Football Club) is an Indian professional association football, football club based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Founded in 2000, the club currently competes in MFA Elite Division of Mumbai Football League, and ...

which they won 1–10 and she scored a goal in their semi-finals against the

Sethu FC Sethu F.C. is an Indian women's professional football club based in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, that competes in the Indian Women's League. They lifted the league trophy in 2018–19. Players Honours League *Indian Women's L ...

. She scored 3 goals in the tournament and were chosen as the emerging player of the tournament. In 2021, she became the first women player from India to score in a top-flight Asian competition, when she scored in the

2021 AFC Women's Club Championship The 2021 AFC Women's Club Championship (also known as the AFC Women’s Club Championship 2021 Pilot Tournament (West)) was the second edition of AFC's premier women's club football competition, held between 7 and 13 November. Four clubs from f ...

match against

FC Bunyodkor Football Club Bunyodkor ( uz, Bunyodkor futbol klubi) is an Uzbekistan, Uzbek professional association football, football club based in Tashkent that competes in the Uzbekistan Super League. Bunyodkor, a relatively unknown club at the time, made ...

Women's Team of Uzbekistan on 14 November, which they won 3–1 at full-time.

Apollon Ladies

On July 3, 2022, it was officially announced that Kalyan signed a contract with

Limassol Limassol (; el, Λεμεσός, Lemesós ; tr, Limasol or ) is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the district with the same name. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population ...

based

club Apollon Ladies. She made her debut for the club on 18 August, coming on as a 60th minute substitute in a 3–0 win against Rīgas FS at the

UEFA Women's Champions League The UEFA Women's Champions League, previously called the UEFA Women's Cup (2001–2009), is a European women's association football competition. It involves the top club teams from countries affiliated with the European governing body UEFA. The ...

qualifying round Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

. On 2 October 2022, she scored her first goal for the club against Aris Limassol in a Cypriot First Division match.

International career

Manisha was selected for the India Under-17 National Squad to play the 2018 BRICS U-17 Football Cup which was held in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

. She scored a goal against China Under-17 which they ended up losing 2–1. Manisha was later then promoted to the India Under-19 National Team. She got the attention of the public when she delivered a memorable performance in India's inspiring win over Thailand in the

AFC U-19 Women's Championship The AFC U-20 Women's Asian Cup is an association football tournament for women's national teams under the age of 20, organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It is organised by the Asian Football Confederation every two years, and serv ...

Qualifiers. She had scored a hat-trick in the same tournament against Pakistan which resulted in the victory of India on a big margin of 18–0. Manisha got her senior team call-up for the match against Hong Kong in January 2019 at the age of 17. Though Kalyan debuted against

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

in January 2019, she scored her maiden goal against

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

on 2 October 2021 as India won the match with a score of 4–1. With India, Kalyan went to Brazil for appearing in the 2021 International Women's Football Tournament of Manaus. On 26 November 2021, she created history after scoring a goal against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in their 6–1 defeat at the 2021 International Women's Football Tournament of Manaus.

International goals

India U-17, U-18 & U-19

Senior Appearance

Style of play

Manisha is an attacking midfielder and is known for her both creativity and her physicality. She is a versatile player who can attack and operate in the wings and even performs as a N°9.

Personal life

She is the younger daughter of Narinder Pal, a businessman and Rajkumari Pal, a homemaker. In an interview with

Goal A goal is an idea of the future or desired result that a person or a group of people envision, plan and commit to achieve. People endeavour to reach goals within a finite time by setting deadlines. A goal is roughly similar to a purpose or ai ...

, Manisha revealed that she is a supporter of

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

player

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

India *

SAFF Women's Championship The SAFF Women's Championship, also called the ''South Asian Football Federation Women's Cup'', is the main association football competition of the women's national football teams, governed by the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF). All seve ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

South Asian Games The South Asian Games (SAG or SA Games), formerly known as the South Asian Federation Games (SAFG or SAF Games), is a quadrennial multi-sport event held among the athletes from South Asia. The governing body of these games is South Asia Olympic C ...

Gold medal:

Gokulam Kerala *

: 2019–20, 2021–22 Individual * Indian Women's League Hero of the League: 2021–22 * Indian Women's League Emerging Player: 2019–20 * AIFF Women's Player of the Year: 2021–22 * AIFF Women's Emerging Footballer of the Year: 2020–21

References

External links

Manisha Kalyan
at

All India Football Federation The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the national governing body of football in India. It is a member of FIFA, the international governing body of football and affiliated to Asian Football Confederation. It is affiliated to Ministry o ...

*
Manisha Kalyan's interview with GoalArchived

Manisha Kalyan
at Flashscore *
Manisha Kalyan
at FBREF
Manisha Kalyan
at Playmaker Stats {{DEFAULTSORT:Kalyan, Manisha Living people Women from Punjab, India Footballers from Hoshiarpur Footballers from Punjab, India Sportswomen from Punjab, India Indian women's footballers Sethu FC players Gokulam Kerala FC Women players Apollon Ladies F.C. players 2001 births India women's international footballers India women's youth international footballers Women's association football forwards South Asian Games gold medalists for India South Asian Games medalists in football Indian Women's League players Indian expatriate women's footballers Expatriate women's footballers in Cyprus