Yolanda D’Souza – The Madonna of Goan football

The young Yolanda D’Souza Kammermeier grew up in Calangute and did not know that she would be part of a historical era in Indian women’s football in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In what was a great career, Yolanda was awarded the Bakshi Bahaddar JivbadadaKerkar Award by the Goa government in 1979 before being named “Player of the Decade” by the Women’s Football Federation of India (WFFI) in 1980. She was also the first woman to score an international hat-trick for India against Swedish club BET in 1976.

A few years ago she got her jersey number 10, which she exchanged with luck with the vice captain of the Swedish side, Mona Wahlgren, after that match.

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“Mona Wahlgren came to Goa because they wrote about their team (BET) and the nice surprise was that she brought me my number 10 shirt with which I scored the hat trick. It was really nice of her to do. I was really surprised , “Yolanda saidTarget.

Looking back at how it all started, Yolanda remembered playing football. She often played with her brother Francisco and part of it had to do with the fact that girls from neighboring villages – Candolim and Parra – usually played inter-village football tournaments.

“I loved football, so wherever he (Francisco) went to play, I always went with him. I went with the boys to play,” she said.

She scored in what has since been dubbed the ‘Adam vs Eves’ game, in Panjim in 1973, where the women triumphed against men 3-1.

She added, “It was more inter-village (women’s football) that was happening. Candolim had a side, Parra had a side. I think it was (women’s soccer) more in the north of Goa (initially).

“So when these two teams came, I said ‘If Candolim plays so well, why can’t we?’ Calangute had a lot of athletes – most of them came from my school So I caught some of my friends and showed them how to play the game on the beach Some guys asked us to come to the ground and so we started play with the boys. “

The title of ‘Hat-trick Queen’ matched her record of scoring a hat-trick in each of her debuts – for Calangute Village against Candolim in 1975, for Goa at the 1976 Nationals in Sultanpur and for India vs Swedish club BETin her international debut game in Lakhimpur in 1976.

Yolanda further explained how the state saw the first women’s football league.

“We had a friendly match against Candolim. It actually became the first recorded (women’s football) match. And then other villages started to play and started friendly matches before we got support from the GFA (Goa Football Association)”, claimed they.

“There must have been at least 12-13 villages against each other, but not in a league. The first league in Goa, called the Parkot Trophy, was organized by the Vasco Sports Club with about 14-15 participating teams and later came under the auspices from GFA. “

Yolanda was not only involved in football, but she was also successful in badminton and hockey.

“At that time, regardless of the game we played, we played out of passion and because you could represent your country or state. We would be happy with the trophies we won. No game was as professional when I played from 1975 to 1981 .

“I was also a state player in badminton and hockey.”

However, Yolanda explained how she focused on football.

“Before I could represent India in hockey, I switched to football because the support we received for football was not the same we received for hockey. We were even very good at hockey and I was selected for the India team, but unfortunately For some reason we didn’t go to Russia that year and immediately after that I joined football, “she recalls.

In 1976, Goa participated in the Nationals played at Sultanpur and Yolanda appeared on the main stage with a bang. She scored 15 goals, including three hat-tricks.

However, Goa had to wait for the next Nationals organized in the Bandodkar stadium in Campal to defeat Bengal (now West Bengal) to raise the trophy, but there was a reason why Yolanda believed she was not outside Goa won.

“The point is that we always lost outside of Bengal (outside of Goa),” she admitted. “The only time we won was when it happened in Goa and I think it was because of the coach. It makes a difference when the guy you coach is with you. Even with the first nationals (1976), we were the better team.

“Joao de Mello was the coach of Sesa and because men’s football was also played extensively with all those interested at the time, he couldn’t leave his job and come with us. We had crowd support everywhere. I think it was more of a push was what you need from the coach to tell you the right thing at the right time. “

While Goa defeated Bengal 3-0 in the final in 1977, Yolanda commemorated the tournament with great pleasure.

“The fact remains that I was the top scorer in three of the four tournaments. In the first in Sultanpur I scored more than the entire Bangladeshi team. In Goa I was the second highest scorer (18) because my teammate Succorinha (Pereira) was the top scorer (19) but I have a very good memory of that tournament because I scored in every game of the tournament.

She continued, “And in a match (against Madhya Pradesh), (I scored) 11 (goals), but I wouldn’t praise that much because the team I played against were newbies. We felt so stupid to continue I even remember Succorinha turning to me and asking me “should I score?” We didn’t want to be close to their target, but we couldn’t help it, you know. “

In the 1979 championships held in Calicut (now Kozhikode), Yolanda scored 13 goals with two hat-tricks and repeated the same feet in the 1980 champions in Lucknow. She was named Player of the Tournament all three times she topped the scoreboard.

Yolanda made her international debut in 1976 against visiting Swedish side BET, in which the Indian team recorded seven wins. She also became the first woman to score an international hat-trick. In 1978, India also won the series against England’s Tiverton Ladies Club, with Yolanda playing an important role.

She was also a silver medalist at the 1979 Women’s Asian Cup held in Calicut, where Yolanda scored twice against Hong Kong (group stage and semifinal) before losing to Chinese Taipei in the final.

Her reason for quitting football after the 1981 World Cup, when the Women’s World Invitational Tournament was named, was an injury and a taste for art. In the tournament, India finished third in their pool, after two draws against Haiti and Bergisch Gladbach and a loss (5-0) against HJK Helsinki.

“It was a second injury of the same type and I didn’t have the patience to go through the whole process again. I also had to catch up on my passion for art.”

She was the only Goan and the vice-captain of the Indian women’s team during the two tournaments.

In fact, much for the struggle that can be remembered with the absence of professionalism, Yolanda continued her passion despite the challenges.

“When I played football, I also studied art. In fact, on many occasions I wanted to go away (football) because art was something I wanted to do until I died, but football is something with a timeline. You can’t keep playing (football ) Forever I tried more than once to leave Arts College because I didn’t get time to play football or practice, Arts College was going on all day.

“But my director was nice at the time. He said, ‘You are not leaving because you are not going to screw up your (art) career for a few years of football’. So he gave me the freedom to play football So I spent more time at that time continue studying than studying.

“So I decided that once I quit playing football, it should be Artsbo because you can’t serve two masters at the same time. Art was also my passion and it takes as much time as football. Even if I wanted to be a coach it had to be your own self . “

Perhaps it was this challenge that kept Yolanda from fulfilling her dream of football at her best.

“Even when I started working, I wanted to leave football, but my director was kind enough to let me play. But it demanded my game because I couldn’t practice as much as I needed to.”

Despite this, Yolanda remains a women’s game legend in India and her goalscoring performance remains unmatched.