An Instagram post of 168 words and three emojis, and that was it. Quietly, with the minimum of fuss, Kamala Devi pulled the curtains down on one of Indian football's finest ever careers on Wednesday afternoon. At just 29, she had announced her retirement from professional football.
The numbers that define that career are there for all to see -- 51 appearances for India, 33 goals. Four-time winner of the SAFF Championships, two-time winner of the South Asian Games. Three-time winner (and two-time runner up) of the senior nationals. Won two of the four Indian Women's League (IWL) seasons that have happened till date, finished runner-up in another. Top scorer of the IWL in its inaugural season (12 in five). The Federation's footballer of the year in 2017.
Impressive, isn't it? Those numbers, all that silverware... they don't even tell you even half the story, though.
Like many of her peers, she spent her childhood playing cricket, sepak takraw and football with (much bigger) boys. When she won the first of her three under-17 national titles, she was 12-years-old. The sheer level of talent that entails... And to think she'd chosen football because it offered a more complete scholarship than other sports, one that covered her kit and equipment expenses.
She won everything she could with her home state Manipur, the absolute queens of this sport (they have won 21 out of 25 nationals), before leaving for Railways and helping set up a team that could actually challenge Manipur consistently. Hence, that third senior title of hers -- Railways' first (they beat Manipur in the final) -- was one of great sporting significance. She had taken the jump partly to push her limits as a footballer and a leader, and partly for practical reasons -- the financial security that Indian Railways offered was far too appealing.
She had been a central striker, leading the line, when she top-scored as she led Eastern Sporting Union to the maiden IWL title. She was a trequartista, pulling the strings and topping the assists charts, when Gokulam Kerala won the title four years later.
She was successful, prolific, and adaptable. She took on challenges and faced them head on.
Even after all that, we're left with questions.
Why retire now? Yes, she's been playing football for 17 years now at some level, but 29 is no age to hang up your boots. Was it that this final disappointment -- India thrown out of the AFC Asian Cup they are hosting? Is it because her greatest dream, of playing in a World Cup looks ever more unlikely to be fulfilled? After all, by the time the next one comes around, she'll be 34, and there simply hasn't been any planning done by the Federation to set the stage for a successful qualification campaign. In fact, we still have no clarity on what the domestic calendar for 2022 will look like.
Or is it because she has had enough of the 'what ifs' that have been hanging over her career from day one? You know them -- what if there had been more regular tournaments for women? How many more goals, how many more trophies could she have had? What if she had not been banished by the team for three years after standing up to perceived discrimination? For celebrating a goal "inappropriately"? What if her comeback tournament, the Asian Cup, had not ended the way it did?
Back in February 2020, on the eve of that latest IWL triumph, Kamala had told ESPN, "Whoever comes into women's football, they do it because they are madly in love with the game. Football is like my boyfriend... how else can we play?"
"How else can we play?"
In her tale, this is Indian women's football. A lifetime of waiting, and hoping, before a sudden, all-too-brief, spurt of action.
She had chosen to join Railways because they offered their players 330 days where they don't have to go to office, as long as they finished in the top three. Kamala finished in the top three four out of five times.
This mattered because before the IWL kicked off in 2017, there was just a month's football that senior players played, the Nationals. The IWL made it two. You could never count on a fixed duration for the national camp and international tournaments. As Kamala told ESPN, "We get exhausted just waiting for [tournaments]." She needed the facilities that Railways offered their employees to simply stay fit, to keep in touch with the sport.
At no point in all this did Kamala break, or even bend. Sleep deserted her when she was out of the national team, but she never apologised like the then national coaches demanded. She waited, and performed, till the call-up became a simple matter of change in management. Her ability, after all, was never in question. She never stopped raising her voice against the inequalities her gender faced in the sport she so loved. She kept demanding more from those whose responsibility it was to make things happen.
There's been a smattering of likes and responses on social media since her announcement. After all, women's football still has a niche audience, through no fault of its own. Four hours after Kamala's post, the Indian football team handle put out a rather bland tweet, with four of her pics from training, congratulating her and wishing her well. Anyone who's followed her career, though, would be left with a slightly bitter feeling -- she deserved better. More.
What comes next remains to be seen -- career in coaching perhaps, or as she has long wanted, an academy back home in Thoubal. But that's for tomorrow. Today, it's time for bittersweet reflection and a celebration that is more becoming of the genuine superstar that she is.
Kamala Devi, one of the GOATs.