I think one of the biggest pride for Malaysia when it comes to sports will always be between badminton and football. It’s a norm to see the streets filled with black and yellow and chants for our Harimau Malaya team.
When spoken to about football, we often think of Faisal Halim, Arif Aiman, Safawi Rasid, Akhyar Rashid, and Syihan Hazmi. But have you ever wondered about our Women’s National Team?
Let me introduce you to Steffi Sarge Kaur — dubbed the ‘Queen of Free Kicks’ and captain of Malaysia’s Women National Football Team.
The 35-year-old woman, whose ancestry is mixed Punjabi, Chinese, and Siamese, was born in Taiping. She has spoken of going to football games with her father when she was younger. Like her dad, she aspired to play football in the future.
When she started school, it was too clear that football was seen as a boy’s sport due to gender disparities. Steffi took advantage of the next best thing, which was to play every other sport her school offered.
Her greatest love, playing football, was something she saved for after school with a group of male friends who shared her interests. She would play more traditional sports like handball, netball, badminton, and even hockey during school hours.
Naturally, Steffi excelled in almost every sport she played. At the age of 12, she represented her state of Perak for handball and hockey on two other occasions — once in the Under 15 Category and later in the Under 18 Category.
Steffi wanted to qualify for the national team so she could represent her country regionally and beyond. It didn’t matter which sport she would be playing, she just wanted to be able to represent.
And she did — in the 2007 Southeast Asia Games (SEA) in Thailand. Five years later, Steffi made the nation proud once again when her team brought home the bronze medal for futsal at the SEA Games in Myanmar.
The greatest accolade of Steffi’s life came in September 2021 when she was chosen to represent Malaysia in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Qualifiers — the largest competition in the history of women’s football.
The tournament was held in Palestine, where Steffi and her teammates faced the Thailand and Palestine teams, before winning their match against Palestine.
Steffi’s greatest achievement in 2022 was representing Malaysia at the ASEAN Football Federation Women’s Championship in the Philippines. An accomplishment to be proud of, the team placed fifth in a group that included Australia, Thailand, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia.
Steffi has developed a wall against critics during the course of her career as a female football player as she is aware of how difficult it can be for women to be given equal respect in the sports world, more so football.
Steffi Sarge Kaur would like to be known as a captain and a leader of the Malaysian Women’s National Team who led by example — both on and off the field, in hopes that she will remain a beacon of light and strength to her teammates, as well as to know that the work her peers and herself have put in has contributed to a massive change for women’s football in Malaysia.
Today, Steffi has joined the Sabah Women’s Team on loan for the AFC Women’s Championship League.
Alrissa Mariam is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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