Anju Turambekar is a fine example of what a woman can achieve with grit and determination. Anju has been an elite football player, athlete, coach, instructor, assessor, administrator, and inspiration for the stakeholders of the game and society.

Earlier this year, she was appointed as Technical Director, Dempo Sports Club in Goa. She thus became the first-ever woman to be appointed as the Technical Director of a football club in Asia, the first Indian to be appointed as AFC Grassroots Panel Member & Technical Expert, the youngest woman to earn an A License coaching certificate in India.

Anju’s journey starts from very humble backgrounds. She is the daughter of a farmer; her family had very limited means during her childhood. The early part of her life was spent juggling between school, farming, buffalos, housework, and sports. Resources were meagre in the family of 6 where she is the youngest of four children. Life was difficult in a typical Maharashtra village near Kolhapur, but sports and particularly football came to her rescue. She started playing with the local boys but found it hard to break the stereotyped gender barriers. A girl playing football was not seen as acceptable. Beating such odds, she was selected to represent Maharashtra at the National Level. She was called up twice for the national team camp.

At 18, she took a job at ‘Magic Bus’- an NGO working for the development of underprivileged children. It was difficult for a village girl to survive in Mumbai on her own without burdening the family. However, working there made a huge impact on her.

She was selected to be a part of the international coaching course by Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) in the Netherlands and The Football Association, England. She has represented India as a coach in the Sports United Female Soccer Delegation organized by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, US Department of State and she was nominated by the US embassy to be part of the NCAA women coaching academy.

These experiences enlightened her and brought in a massive change in her life. From a dream of representing India, she realized that she could contribute more to nurturing the dreams of millions, who may be fighting the adversities just like her.

She has served the AIFF as the Head of Grassroots Development and was one of the most critical factors to put together the Grassroots movement that India witnessed over the last decade. The impact that Anju has created is unprecedented and reflects in the work done under the Grassroots framework in India. She has developed and implemented the FIFA & AFC Grassroots Philosophy focusing on young Boys & Girls in line with AIFF's Strategic plan. She has overseen 153 AIFF grassroots courses across India and educated 3944 grassroots coaches impacting 15000+ girls and boys. She was the catalyst for India's launch of the FIFA Live Your Goals (LYG) Program for empowering women in football. The game in India today has seen increased participation, especially by girls. A professional League for Women (Indian Women’s League – IWL) too, has been started by the AIFF as a result. In her role with AFC, she assesses and monitors other Asian countries and their Grassroots Development Program which includes the participation of girls in football. The efforts were recognized by Asian Football Confederation (AFC), where the AIFF has received the AFC President’s Recognition Award for Grassroots program in 2014 with few other nominations.

Anju educated more than 5000 PE teachers, coaches through the Sports for Development concept while playing a vital role in developing the Sports for Development curriculum. She has educated more than 500 young girls through the Leadership development program. She has worked on the skill development aspect of the Indian Men and Women Football players by making them Grassroots coaches. One of her most impactful projects has been to lead the ‘Mission XI Million’ project created around the FIFA U17 World Cup 2017. She oversaw the registration of 22,637 schools and trained 11,296,471 children (boys & girls) and 24,449 teachers across 492 cities in 29 states and 7 Union Territories.

Today, she is always at hand to help educate and motivate youngsters and she speaks as an expert at many sports management institutes and virtual platforms both in India and globally.