In a league of her own: Sujata storms century-old CFL’s male bastion

Kolkata: It was a late January afternoon and Sujata Kar was busy doing her household chores when her cellphone buzzed with an urgent summons to meet Southern Samity's general secretary Sourav Pal.Being head coach of the south Kolkata club's football academy, the former Blue Tigresses forward and recipient of the AIFF women's coach of the year award would often exchange phone calls with her present-day employer. But it was a different call which a few hours later would ring in a significant change in her life and sow the seed of a major glass-ceiling act in Indian football.Sourav welcomed Sujata at the club's Rabindra Sarovar Stadium office with a historic proposal — bossing the dugout of the club's senior men's football team in the Calcutta Football League's top division."It came as a pleasant surprise," Sujata told TOI on Wednesday. "It was an opportunity too good to be true; it was a challenge so huge that I couldn't simply afford to let go. Through this challenge I could also judge my quality and acceptance among my players," she maintained.The 2025-2026 season of the CFL Premier Division is set to kick-start on June 25. As Southern Samity prepare to face Sreebhumi FC in their first match — the date of which is yet to be announced — Sujata relishes the occasion of becoming the first-ever female coach to be managing a men's senior team in the league's 127-year-old history."All other coaches (of the participating teams) in the league are better than me and I'll try to learn from them. How they handle a pressure situation, how they control the players and instruct them in different phases of the game. I always think that my potential as a coach could and should be judged against the best in the business. This is going to be quite a demanding examination and I'm ready for it," Sujata noted.Sujata would find in Southern Samity a club which may not be a regular in the championship race but an entity which never fights shy of experimenting. When the club earned its promotion to the top echelon of the local league in 2010, it gave legendary IM Vijayan his first brush with coaching.Sourav provided an insight into what prompted his club to break the glass ceiling with the appointment of Sujata."Having seen a man (Anthony Andrews) guiding Gokulam Kerala FC women's team to back-to-back (IWL) titles, Sujata's name crossed our mind when we were discussing about appointing a new coach for the men team. If a man can coach a women's team, why can't a woman manage a men's team? Moreover, we have seen Sujata over four years serving this club in various capacities and we have no doubt about her credentials as a coach," Sourav pointed out.The Southern official also drew a line of comparison between the team's debut season in the CFL Premier Division and the current one."When we hired Vijayan, there was large-scale euphoria and we were determined to do well in the debut season. Unfortunately, we didn't have luck by our side in some matches and we had to part company with a legend like Vijayan in the middle of the season."However, this time around, we have built the team with a bunch of very young but promising players, picked from various parts of north Bengal. This team needs special care — I would say a mother-like care — for development and Sujata is a perfect fit for the job," Sourav quipped.Long before the likes of Bala Devi and Jyoti Chouhan setting a trend for India women players signing professional contracts with foreign clubs, Sujata was offered a chance to play in Germany, but the deal eventually didn't see light.Her plunge into coaching — following a 25-match stint with the women's senior national team — was inspired by former football administrator Debu Mukherjee in 2013. And her recent credentials as a coach have seen her guide East Bengal FC and Sreebhumi FC to Calcutta Women's League (Kanyashree Cup) titles.Will it be different to manage a men's team now?"No," Sujata said with an emphatic note."It's like solving a mathematical problem. The formula remains the same whether a man or a woman attempts to solve it," Sujata, standing on the threshold of history, signed off.