FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup Probable Sai Sankhe Scores 96.2% in ICSE Class 10 Exams

Sai Sankhe, who was part of India's SAFF U-15 Women's Championship winning team, has scored of 96.2 per cent in her ICSE Class 10 examinations -- the results of which were announced on Friday.

A probable for the upcoming FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup India 2021, Sai, 15, was part of the India side that finished second at the U-17 Women's Football Tournament in Mumbai last year and spoke in detail about how she balanced her studies with football while managing the 'pressure' that comes with board examinations.

"The pressure was there as I really wanted to do very well in my boards and ace them. With the result I secured, I am very happy. If you love football and consider education to be as important, you can do both together -- hands down," Sai was quoted by AIFF.

"The exams started at the end of February this year but my preparation began much before while we were in our training camp. I was following up with my regular school studies at all times while at the camp. If we had training in the morning, I would come back and study for some time before lunch," Sai explained her routine.

"After the evening training, I would study again. If there was no morning training on a day, I would use that time to study too. Basically, whatever time I could get, I used it to study and prepare."

The striker who was scouted for the national team following her performances at the junior girls' NFC 2019-20 in Kolhapur in April last year, talked about the emphasis on education laid down by the coaches in the camp and the All India Football Federation (AIFF).

Special tuitions were organized in the camp for the players to study and Sai stated that she "couldn't have asked for more."

"Our coaches in the team were really supportive and stressed on how important education is for all of us. They really helped us and organized tuitions for us as well. We couldn't have asked for more."

"The tuitions started in November itself and we had them for three months. In the evenings, you could study any subject you want and the teacher was there to help you. I used to study history and geography in those tuitions because those are subjects I didn't have much."