There are players in Nepali women's football who have received more attention than they want. Why should we mention their names? There are also those who have contributed a lot and remain silent. Like Renuka Nagarkote. Her name should be mentioned. Why is there such fear, she usually wants to remain a secret.

After all, there must be a discussion about who is who in Nepali football. Why is her discussion necessary now? Renuka recently scored her first goal for Nepal, in the ongoing Women's SAFF Championship in Goa.

Nepal has reached the semi-finals as expected after winning both the league matches. In the last match against Sri Lanka, one goal was in Renuka's name. When the game touched an hour mark, Renuka's chipped ball from outside the penalty area suddenly gained some height and turned into a goal inside the post, leaving the Sri Lankan goalkeeper stunned.

Only when the ball had entered the post did the Nepali player realize that the goal had been scored. Renuka is of the same nature as she is, and the goal was almost the same. Thankfully, she did not pass to anyone in that situation. Otherwise, it is said that she is in a hurry to pass as soon as she gets the ball. She is not interested in scoring goals herself. When talking in the mix zone after the game, her argument was, ‘My full attention is only on the team, so individual goals were not happening.’

Whatever happens, it has to happen one day. That is why Renuka also scored a goal. This goal was achieved 16 years after her debut with the Nepali national team. Naturally, she was happy. Perhaps Nepal coach Navin Neupane was more happy with this goal. In the post-match conference, Neupane was the first to congratulate Renuka. He also had the same opinion, everyone knows how important Renuka is for the Nepali team, but she does not want to be in the spotlight.

Now, it is really fun to look back on her playing career. Renuka is more than a second-generation player in Nepali football. The first generation was the one who played from 1986 to 1999. The second-generation players are the ones who participated in the women's football of the 2010 South Asian Games. In the meantime, there were dark days for women's football for 10 years, nothing much was happening.

It was at this time that Renuka started playing football. She was just a teenager, and she got the opportunity to debut in the first SAFF Championship in 2010. The day was December 18, 2010. The place was Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. The match was against Pakistan. Nepal won that match by 12 goals. No matter how well Renuka played, she did not remain in the regular team. There were many reasons for this. At one point, her playing career was in question due to injuries.

At another time, the coach did not want to keep her in the team. When Ananta Thapa was the direct successor, Renuka got very few opportunities. That is why the number of games she played for Nepal is not much higher than those who came after her. To be precise, her first goal was possible only after 62 games. In the meantime, special moments in her playing career are very important.

The first of them is the game played by Nepal against Malaysia in Satdobato in 2016. The reason why that friendly international match is so important is that it was the first women's competition played by Nepal on its own soil. The coach was Kumar Thapa. He had chosen this Renuka as the captain. In that sense, Renuka was the first lucky player to captain on Nepali soil. Now, her captaincy against Sri Lanka is her 20th. Meanwhile, Sajna Rana, Niru Thapa, Angela Subba and Savitra Bhandari also became captains.