Though I love football, I really don’t think you can earn a living by playing it, at least women’s football. So in the morning, I am busy doing personal training for my clients, which supplements my income and also keeps me fit.

Tournaments are erratic and you won’t get paid enough. When I was playing for the country it was a nominal amount of Rs 600 a day at the training camp. The amount per game at a national level tournament is slightly more. But then if you have only one tournament every four or five months, then what are you going to do for the rest of the month or how are you going to support yourself financially.

Male footballers have their Indian Super League, (a professional football league organised by the All India Football Federation and their commercial partners Football Sports Development Limited), which goes on for a couple of months at least, ensuring a steadier source of income. In addition to that they also get paid for training if they are playing at the national level too. Many of them also have contracts with their clubs that runs throughout the year.

In comparison, the Indian Women’s League goes on only for a month and your contract period is pretty much only for that month, unless they sign you for a longer period. This why I said turning it into a full-time career is very hard.

I already missed the ongoing tournament, where my team is playing for the Nationals in Kerala, due to a ligament injury, while training. Another tournament is coming up in January; I hope to be ready by then.

(Jyoti Ann Burret is a former Indian football player. She plays for Hans WFC. In conversation with Sangeeth Sebastian, writer and founder, Vvox, a sextech platform. The interview is a part of an AKADialog initiative to capture the lives of newsmakers.)