Bhubaneswar: Football coach Nanda Kishore Patnaik, who gave life to women’s football in Odisha, passed away late on Monday.
According to younger brother Ashok Patnaik, he had tested positive for COVID-19 on May 12 and was admitted to a private hospital in the city after his condition deteriorated. He breathed his last around 1 am while undergoing treatment.
Patnaik had guided many girls, including Bishnupriya Mohanta, Runi Nayak and Jashoda Munda, from Salia Sahi slums to the national team.
He began by training girls, who were playing Kho Kho at Unit-2 Girls High School. He then trained 16 girls at Kalinga Stadium. In 1997, two among them—Sradhanjali Samantray and Ranjita Mohanty—were selected in the National team as goalkeepers.
He had built the Odisha women’s football team that won the Senior Women’s National Football Championship in Guwahati in 2011.
Besides Sradhanjali and Ranjita, he had groomed international women footballers like Prasanti Pradhan, Sudipta Dash, Sarita Jayanti Behera, Mamali Das and Prathama Priyadarshini.
In his later years, he served as the chief coach of NITA Football Academy.
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