The Stories Behind: Euphoria to heartbreak – teen footballer scores on dream national debut but learns of her grandad's fatal illness after
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SINGAPORE — Footballer Kyra Taylor was back at Jalan Besar Stadium on a recent Friday, where a few weeks earlier she had experienced a giddying high followed all too soon by deep sadness.
On July 16, she made her debut for the Lionesses, the Singapore women's national football team, in a match against Macau, scoring a brilliant goal just minutes after getting on the field as a substitute.
Unbeknown to the 18-year-old at the time, just before the game, her grandfather had suffered a brain aneurysm — where an artery balloons and fills with blood. It then ruptured and the 71-year-old slipped into a coma when the match was happening.
The teenager did not know because her mother withheld the news from her and told her only after the game. Her grandfather died two days later.
Now, Ms Taylor was being interviewed by TODAY in the lounge at Jalan Besar Stadium, three days before departing to Scotland for further studies.
Her wavy hazel hair cascaded over her black hoodie and she fidgeted while I settled down beside her. Sitting cross-legged on a cream-coloured couch, she nibbled on her fingernails nervously as we chatted.
Bursting into playful banter with her best friend and mother who were in the same room during our interview, you would never have guessed that she had experienced that roller-coaster of emotion right here just a month earlier.
DESTINED FOR THE FIELD
That game with the Lionesses ended with the national team winning 9-0 against Macau. Ms Taylor scored the final goal in the last 10 minutes.
Her achievement was described on the Football Association of Singapore's website as "a breath-taking long-range shot that found the back of the net — a dream debut goal".
Mr Karim Bencherifa, head coach of the Lionesses, told TODAY: "Her vision, along with her strength in long-range passing and shooting, really stood out (in the match)."“I’ve been playing ever since I can remember. It’s been a long time and it’s kind of my escape, really, especially when I was schooling and had training after school. That was what I really looked forward to.”
Although she was slightly jittery at the start of the interview, the footballer warmed up when we talked more about her favourite sport while surrounded by her most ardent supporters.
She uttered so many football terms that I constantly needed to interrupt to clarify what she meant. She used abbreviations such as "UTR", which refers to the Unleash The Roar! scholarship for promising Singapore football talents, and "WNL", which I later learnt stands for the Women's National League.
I was never a football fan because of how masculine I perceived the sport to be, but hearing how Ms Taylor shone on the field changed my perspective and showed me that there is space for women to take centre-stage in the sport and challenge stereotypes.
Ms Taylor was exposed to football from an early age. Her mother said that she had been kicking a ball since she was two years old because her father is a football coach and her parents used to run a football school.
She played and competed with boys until the age of 14.
Most of the time, she was the only girl on the team and “felt special”.
However, one particular incident when she was 11 made her realise that she would fit in better with an all-girls’ team.
“It’s my core memory of playing with the boys. We were doing a penalty shootout, and then I took the last penalty and scored,” she recounted.
“All the boys ran past me and celebrated the win without me. I was just walking alone and didn’t know what to do. That was when I knew that I wanted to play with the girls,” she said with a chuckle.
Ms Taylor is an alumnus of the Canadian International School. Her best friend Aaniya Mahajan, 17, used to be on the same school team.
This friend, who was sitting near Ms Taylor during the interview with TODAY, said: “We depend on her. Everytime (Kyra) wasn’t there to play, everyone would be worried.”
During the interview, I was reminded that several of my own schoolmates were national players in various sports when we were younger, and I always admired how they coped with the competing demands that they faced.
I found it difficult to imagine how they could manage their studies even after missing lessons for training when I was already struggling to cope. Were all these sacrifices worth it?
Meeting Ms Taylor showed me that they were. Being at the top of your game in a particular sport means that other aspects of your life have to take a back seat sometimes.
As long as your passion gives you purpose and opportunities for growth, winning a trophy or gaining experience playing with teammates at a match may prove to be more valuable than perfect test scores.
Yet, being in a sport dominated by men comes with its own challenges. “Everyone obviously believes that men’s teams are better, and they get a lot more views, support and salary than us,” Ms Taylor said.
She is frustrated by this, but acknowledges that support for women’s football has grown in the past few years.
“Our pay went up last year.”
And in December 2022, the national team jersey was released in a women’s cut for the first time. Before that, the Lionesses wore men’s sizes of the jersey.
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