Sulanjana Raul created history silently in her district Bhagabanpur, East Midnapore. The 15-year-old lanky girl is now on the way to Kyrgyzstan after being selected for the Indian team to participate in the under-17 AFC Cup qualifiers. The left wing-half had also debuted in the Kolkata Women's League with East Bengal last year and drew the attention of the football fraternity by scoring 11 goals in the League. 

It was a dream Ganesh Raul used to see with his daughter that she would represent Bengal and India one day. The 49-year-old man is a farmer. He cultivates betel. But after Covid-19 and the pandemic, the betel business has almost crashed. Sulanjana apart, Ganesh has a wife and one more daughter who is studying. Somehow he manages to run his family financially. Even speaking over the phone from his residence Ganesh Raul could not control his tears. 

He stated, "Sulanjana was an athlete. She used to practice sprinting alone at a local ground. But I loved football and shifted my daughter to the game from athletics. I brood still today about those days when I used to take her to Kolkata, to different coaching centers for learning the basics of the game. But she did not get admitted anywhere. Money was a big issue as I was not able to bear the expenses for her practice, food, and traveling up-and-down from Midnapore every day. I cannot remember how many sleepless nights we two had spent. Even there were several days when we could not return to Bhagabanpur after completing selection trials somewhere in Kolkata and had to spend the nights either under any tree or on the roadside. Then ultimately I became frustrated and started training Sulanjana. The opportunity suddenly came last year and Sulanjana appeared for a selection trial in East Bengal. She impressed a lot in the trials, scoring around 6 goals, and was immediately roped in by the club for Kanyasree Cup. Today my dream has come true. " 

Sulanjana expressed gratitude to Sujata Kar, her coach at East Bengal commenting, "She was also renowned forward and scored a lot of goals. That is why her pieces of advice, especially to the forwards help a lot. I have learned so many things while training under her observation." 

Sunil Chhettri is Sulanajan's most favorite striker in India. The footballer who has already represented Bengal twice has a long desire of meeting Sunil and take some valuable advice from him.