KARACHI: With one shimmy, she sped away. The movement of her shoulders meant her opponent lost sense of direction before the quick feet saw the ball move quickly from left to right, sending him tumbling to the ground bedazzled and exasperated.

That was Shahlyla Baloch in full flight.

It was a practice match against the boys team of her club Balochistan United ahead of the 2014 National Women’s Championship yet the pint-sized Pakistan international striker was showing the full repertoire of her skills.

Her coach Tariq Lutfi termed her ‘mini-Maradona’.

Unfortunately he, the rest of the country and the world won’t be able to see her in full flight anymore.

Shahlyla, inarguably the best woman footballer Pakistan has produced, passed away in the early hours of Thursday morning after a car crash at the age of just 20.

“The car hit a pole in Defence Phase VIII,” her sister Raheela told Dawn on Thursday. “We got the news at 2.30am and they told us that the accident happened at 1.30am.”

Shahlyla was in the front passenger seat with her cousin driving when the car veered off and hit the side where she was seated. She succumbed to head injuries at a private hospital.

“In terms of skill, she was the best woman footballer in the country,” a devastated Lutfi told Dawn on Thursday. “She had so much ahead of her. It’s such a sad loss for our country. It’s a huge loss for football in the country.

“I nicknamed her ‘Maradona’ because of her short height, which reminded me of the Argentine great,” he added.

“She had great temperament for the game and has 17 to 18 national goals to her credit. [National team captain] Hajra Khan has more national goals than her but it was Shahlyla who was pulling the strings behind her.”

According to police sources, Shahlyla along with her relative Fadian Baloch was coming from Do Darya towards Salt n’ Pepper Village in a Toyota Corolla on Abdul Sattar Edhi Avenue when turning towards Emaar project, Fadian lost control of the and hit the footpath first and then the pole.

Karachi-South SSP, Saqib Ismail Memon added that the family appeared reluctant to get post-mortem examination at the hospital.

“Fadian sustained minor injuries in the accident and has been taken into custody in case if the family wants to get a FIR registered against him,” Memon added.

However, till the filing of the story, the family had not given any statement to the police while Shahlylya’s remains have been taken to Balochistan for burial.

Bursting onto the scene as a nine-year-old, Shahlyla remains the youngest player to feature in the National Women’s Championship when she turned out for Balochistan United in the tournament’s inaugural edition in 2005.

PIONEERING FIGURE

The youngest of three football-playing daughters of Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) women’s wing chairperson Rubina Irfan — who founded Balochistan United, she was one of the pioneering figures of the women’s game in the country.

“The club was formed only after they saw Shahlyla’s craze for the game,” former Balochistan United coach Jameel Baloch told Dawn on Thursday.

With Shahlyla and her elder sisters Raheela and Sohaila playing the game, it provided encouragement to others to come forward.

Playing football in a male-dominated society meant breaking stereotypes and there were issues.

“I had to put them in the team,” Rubina told Dawn in an interview in 2014. “I had to take the first step. I had to encourage people in Pakistan to allow their daughters to play football.”

It was a move that put women’s football on Pakistan’s map and the national team now has players from the far-reaches of the country, including Gilgit-Baltistan.

But no one in the current squad can come close to doing what Shahlyla could do with the ball.

The pocket-sized dynamo had great acceleration and great feet to combine with her low centre of gravity, which saw her make her opponents go in circles chasing her.

Her skills caught the attention of Maldives’ Sun Hotels and Resorts FC and she went there, along with fellow national team striker Hajra Khan, to play for them last year.

It brought her closer to her dream of being a professional footballer.

“I want to be a professional footballer,” she told Dawn in 2014 when asked if she would abandon the game later on like her sisters Raheela, who has quit playing to go into football management, and Sohaila, who is pursuing medicine. “That’s the only thing I want to do.”

It means Pakistan will have to wait for its first professional footballer. Just like it waits for its first international honour in women’s football — something that seems even more difficult with Shahlyla’s untimely demise.

Shahlyla’s international debut came in 2010, aged 14, when she was inducted into the national team for the inaugural SAFF Women’s Championship.

Pakistan endured an 8-0 hammering in the semi-finals to arch-rivals India and Shahlyla suffered further international heartbreak when the national team suffered successive group stage exits in the next two editions — the last being played at home in Islamabad.

“I want to win an international title for Pakistan,” Shahlyla said after the national team’s latest failure in 2014.

She wouldn’t get that chance. But her pioneering work will see so many more Pakistani women get a chance to play the game she loved.

Published in Dawn, October 14th, 2016