Anantnag: Nadiya Nighat hails from Ram Bagh area of Srinagar district who is the first female football coach from the Valley who aspires to become the national coach of India. Nadiya has done her schooling from Government High School Natipora, Srinagar and she has pursued her higher secondary schooling from Uttarakhand, a state in northern India in the year 2015. In the year 2007, when Nadiya Nighat was 11 years old she went along with some of her friends to Amar Singh College, where she saw some sportsman practicing football and at that moment she developed a great interest in football. That day she played her first game there which gave a push to her limits in pursuing career in this game.
In 2010, Nadiya moved to Jammu for participating under 19 School National which was held in Jammu division. In the year 2014, she pursued a grass root course with All India Football Federation. During that course she learnt how to train 12-16 age groups sportsperson. In the year 2015 she got AFC D license and in the same year she took part in Playing Senior National which was held at Sharda University, Uttar Pradesh. Nadiya played in Indian Women League (IWL) at Kollapur in the year 2016 and in the same year she was represented as Sub Junior National Coach in Manipur. In 2017, Nadiya pursued a course tailored for referee through Jammu and Kashmir Football Association in Srinagar and in the year 2018 she represented Jammu and Kashmir in 23rd Senior National which was held at Orissa. In the same year of 2018 Nadiya started to work as head Coach for Football Leaders Academy of under 13 boys youth eye league for one year. She also worked as Head Coach in Alakpura football club in Haryana for girls.
Later on she joined lone star Kashmir FC as head coach for women’s wing and as an assistant coach for senior boys in second division eye league. In 2020 Nadiya done ITSO Scouting Level I Course after which she joined Real Kashmir FC as Head coach for women. In 2021, she has been selected for Karnataka State League and in the same year she joined Lone star FC as head coach for women wing and assist coach for senior boys. While speaking exclusively to Kashmir Glacier, Nadiya Nighat said, “Right from my childhood I want to go in sports field but I wasn’t aware to be a footballer and coincidently I developed interest in football at the age of 11 when I played for the first time.”
“In the year 2014, I started my own academy with a single player during the initial phase and later on it went to 40 kids aspiring to become good footballers,” she added.
She also said that due to some financial strains she couldn’t continue her own football academy in Kashmir but that didn’t let her go down with her aim to train young budding footballers as she shifted her focus on working with clubs where she continued to train young players particularly girls of Jammu and Kashmir.
She further added, “I always wanted to work as a national coach for women where I can train the budding sportswoman of our country and apart from that I always wished to try my skills at an International level but due to lack of proper guidance, I missed that moment in my life and that’s the reason why I want to train budding players of the Valley so that they can prove their mettle at an international level.”
While speaking about administration’s support she said that the youth of Jammu and Kashmir has great potential but that potential is going astray due to lack of support from the Government. The Government could do a great contribution in channnelising that potential in a way which will benefit the erstwhile state as well as our country. While commenting about drugs she said, “A sportsperson must stay away from drugs which could caste a dark cloud on his career and life.