LONDON, January 9. History has been created with Parminder Nagra, who played the Beckham-obsessed heroine in Bend It Like Beckham, being chosen by FIFA, the World Cup body, to receive the Annual Football Personality of the Year award.

Never before FIFA has given this award to any woman. The FIFA President Sepp Blatter praised Parminder for her help in promoting football among women.

The football authorities here too acknowledge that she helped popularize the cause of the game in women and Asians. One said she affected everyone, in Britain and India in particular, as the teenager from a middle class Punjabi family in Southall, Punjab's pind in England, who fought within herself the desire to conform to her family norms and her obsession to play like Beckham.

Blatter recounted her "unequalled contribution to football" and iterated that her role had helped in making football popular among women. This is evident in Southall as well where now a full women's team is ready to play in local matches. One Indian girl was also selected for the national women's second team.

Courtesy: www.hindustantimes.com