Bangladesh’s Kolsindur high school football team captain Maria Manda (center) controls the ball during a match in Dhaka. More than a dozen of Kolsindur’s players have already played on the national girls’ team, among them 12-year-old Tahura Khatun, a diminutive striker nicknamed the “Kolsindur Messi” after Barcelona player Lionel Messi. AFP PHOTO
KOLSINDUR, Bangladesh: Bangladeshi village football coach Mofiz Uddin only decided to form a girls’ team in 2011 out of frustration at the local boys’ failure to bring home any trophies.