Anjana Rana Magar was only 11 when she came home crying one day, walking stiffly on her bruised feet. That day, she had played football barefoot for four hours as part of her training. She decided to give up football; she didn’t have enough money even to buy a pair of boots. But then her mother borrowed some from her relatives, bought her football gears, and pushed her back into training. Nine years later, 20-year-old Magar is the youngest member of Nepal’s national women football team.

She grew up in Rautahat, a place where women’s football is valued and many women national footballers have emerged. Rana Magar’s mother had a dream of watching her daughter play in national and international stadiums as well. She had seen other women footballers make history abroad and had similar dreams for her daughter. “Even though I wasn’t too enthusiastic about playing football in the beginning, my mother used to encourage me and push me to train,” Rana Magar recalls.

Carrying her mother’s dream, Magar started playing football young. Every day after school, her mother sent her off to training, and on days when the 11-year-old was bored or tired, her mother used to take her to training on a bicycle to ensure she didn’t miss a session. “What started as my mother’s dream gradually became my own,” the footballer shares, “and I started taking it seriously.”

When she was 13, Rana Magar was selected to come to Kathmandu with the girl’s team from Sarlahi. She was now trying to get into the national under-14 girl's team. “The moment I was selected to play for U-14, it felt I could do something with football,” she says. At first, Rana Magar used to play as a striker but later, at her coach’s advice, started guarding the goal.

In 2016, her team triumphed in the Coca-Cola Cup, a school-level game in ANFA. She played representing the girl's football team of Jana Jyoti Higher Secondary School in Kathmandu and won the title of ‘best goalkeeper’. That was when she discovered goalkeeping had been her calling all along. Representing Rautahat, she then got to play against the Nepal Army team at the Pradhan Senapati Cup in 2016. With three great saves in the semifinal, she had caught the attention of the Army football coach.

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To her surprise, when she returned to Rautahat with her family, the same coach, impressed by her performance, showed up at her house with an offer to join the Army team. She readily accepted the offer and came to Kathmandu.The same year, aged 14, Magar was picked for the U-19 national team after a rigorous selection process. “I remember coming to the All Nepal Football Association office for the first time and running straight to the roof to look at how big the houses here were compared to Rautahat,” she says with a laugh. In her heart, she knew this was a life-changing opportunity.

The more she played, the more she loved herself on the field. Her deep desire to make her mother proud kept her going and she started understanding that a Nepali girl can also dream of a career in football.

At 15, she was the youngest player in the national U-19 team. “I was loved by everyone in the team and they took care of me like a young sister,” she now shares.

While playing for the country at such a young age, Magar also made sure she did enough to clear her exams and ultimately managed to finish +2 level.

After years of experience in national and international tournaments, Rana Magar captained the national U-19 team at the 2021 SAFF U-19 Women’s Championship in Bangladesh.

Leading the national team was an experience she will always cherish. “I held the responsibility for the team and it was fun and challenging at the same time,” Rana Magar shares. Under her leadership, Nepal won against Sri Lanka and Bhutan and drew with Bangladesh, with their sole loss coming at the hands of India. Although the team couldn’t make it to the finals, they brought home the ‘Fair Play’ trophy.

Then the 11-year-old had never imagined football would one day be such a big part of her life. Sky's the limit for “Kanchi”, her nickname, who has already achieved so much in such a short time.