Still, the village takes pride in its only family that has a legacy of sports. It is the Murmu family.
Tilakhula village in the Salboni division in West Midnapore is one of the most football-passionate villages in West Bengal. Most of the boys from this village have the only pass-time of playing football spontaneously at the local ground instead of wasting time with smartphones. The girls of that village also seem passionate about football. Even there is a club Salboni Jagoroni that nurtures girl footballers and the number of girl footballers who practice at the club ground can even build up a women's team.
Still, the village takes pride in its only family that has a legacy of sports. It is the Murmu family. Subrata Murmu and Moushumi Murmu are the brightest names of the family. Significantly, Sujit Murmu, their father used to play football passionately at the district level. Arati Murmu, their mother used to do the high and long jump. Even their late grandfather used to play football.
The inheritance is being carried by Moushumi and Subrata. The 18-year-old Moushumi represented India in the recently-concluded AFC under-20 championship. She had already scored 13 goals in the Kanyasree Cup for the champion East Bengal this season. Moushumi who has also been called up in the senior national women's camp for the forthcoming senior women's national football championship said, "I also loved athletics in childhood watching my mother. But later on, having watched my elder brother who represents United Sports, I came to football." She started learning football from a local mentor Narayan Singh.
A fan of Neymar generally does not watch any other footballer's video. Rather she revealed that she has the habit of doing post-match analysis, especially to rectify her previous mistakes.
Subrata Murmu however has a sole mission at the moment. That is to don India shirts. He is proud of her sister Moushumi who represented under-20 India in the recently-concluded AFC under-20 championship. Subrata has represented senior Bengal in the National Games last year and Santosh Trophy this season.
The striker who now represents United Sports had a lot of attributes for his childhood mentor Narayan Singh. He said, "We were going through a severe financial crisis. Father manages to survive financially from cultivation. Amidst the condition, Narayan Singh came to us in disguise as a god. He had borne all of our expenses (sister and myself) needed for the training. He used to take care with so much affection that I cannot forget ever."
Murmu's family still lives in a mud house. None of Subrata and Moushumi have got the job. Both divulged they badly need a job and both have one common dream. That is to establish themselves as professional footballers and earn a worthy amount of money so that they can ask their father not to wake up the early and go to the field every day, but to take rest.
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