Bala Devi on fitting in, the lockdown and meeting Gerrard

Bala Devi hasn’t been home in Manipur since leaving for Scotland in February, 2020. Shortly after signing for Rangers in the Scottish Women’s Premier League 1 (SWPL 1), Bala’s European sojourn suffered an early hiccup because of Covid-19. There was no football played for seven months and the Indian forward lost precious time on her 18-month contract with the club.

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But Bala isn’t complaining. Speaking to reporters from Glasgow over video conference, she recalled the challenges of dealing with the long period of football inactivity. “I had to look after myself – my fitness, my diet. But everyone at Rangers, from the coaches to the players, helped me out. The club also has a sports scientist, who gave me a weekly fitness chart to follow. I also kept in touch with my friends in India over video calls. It has helped that I have met many Indian families here. That is why it wasn’t really a problem for me fitting in,” she said on Friday.

“I was a bit emotional when the lockdown first happened. I didn’t have much idea on what I should or shouldn’t have been doing at the time. So I tried to calm myself down, tried to explain to myself why I was here. My family also supported me throughout the period.”

On top of the pandemic, settling into a new culture was another challenge. “At first, it was very hard to understand the Scottish accent,” she said with a laugh. “My own English isn’t very good. So I had to learn many things – even small things like they don’t say ‘yes’ but ‘aye’.”

The best Indian player in women’s football over the past decade, Bala said she had to step up her game in the much more competitive setting of Scotland. “Players are extremely fit here and everyone is aware of the importance of fitness. The style of play is also different and I had to step up my game. But I was able to adapt after regular training sessions,” she said.

The 31-year-old forward recently scored a long-range goal against Spartans after coming on as a substitute, the video of which was widely shared on social media. The goal may help boost her chances of getting a new contract from Rangers once the current deal expires at the end of this season. Rangers are currently second in the standings, four points behind Glasgow City, with four games to go, the last of which is on June 6. Bala, however, refused to dwell on the prospects of a contract extension.

Among her experiences at Rangers so far, Bala recalled that of former Liverpool captain and current Rangers manager Steven Gerrard coming to watch the team train and speaking to them over a video conference. Gerrard recently led the Rangers men’s side to their first league title in a decade in an unbeaten campaign. “Steven Gerrard spoke to us on a Zoom call and he even came to watch us train. He gave us advice on how to improve our game and spoke to our coach (Malky Thomson) as well. It was a great experience,” said Bala.

While Bala prepares to help her team in the homestretch, she is also keeping a tab on the brutal second wave of Covid-19 in India, with her home state Manipur also seeing a surge in cases in recent days. The northeast state had a positivity rate of over 20% on Thursday, with 644 new cases and 11 deaths. Bala said she is particularly worried about her father, who has a kidney ailment.

“I speak to my family every night, at around 10 to 11 pm Indian time. My father is a kidney patient, so I have to keep telling him to exercise caution because it is difficult to go hospitals these days for diseases (other than Covid-19). But so far, there haven’t been many positive cases in our village,” she said.

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