Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri, Romero Fernandes, Gurpreet Singh Sandu. Add another name to that exclusive list – Aditi Chauhan, who became the first Indian woman footballer to play competitive football in the United Kingdom when she turned out for the West Ham United Ladies in their first match of the 2015-'16 FA Women’s Premier League, Southern Division (the third level of the footballing league pyramid in England).
If the scale of Chauhan’s achievement hasn’t struck you yet, here’s an interesting fact to provide some context: unlike the i-League or the Indian Super League, there is no professional league for women’s football in India. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Oh, and this despite the Indian women’s football team being ranked a cool 100 places above their male counterparts. The women’s team was ranked 56 while the men were ranked 156 on August 18, 2015.
Never mind that West Ham lost the game 0-5. For the 22-year old from Delhi, this is a massive achievement, a culmination of the extraordinary effort she’s put in to get this far. The season is long, and don’t put it past Chauhan to come back with a bang.
A sporting prodigy
In her teens, Chauhan represented her school in sports as varied as basketball, javelin throw and shot put. However the switch to football came when one of her coaches noticed her expert catching abilities and suggested she take up game. The rest was history – Chauhan excelled at the trials and soon became a member of the U-19 Delhi team, at the tender age of 15.
The path to national colours came along in two years. She was selected for the U-19 Indian team. The next feather in her cap was her performance for the senior team in the 2012 SAFF Women’s Championship. In an ultimately victorious campaign for India, Chauhan was at her very best, keeping a clean sheet in three out of four games for India, conceding just once against Nepal in the final. Quite understandably, she is India’s first-choice goalkeeper at present.
Chauhan then moved to Loughborough University in Leicestershire to study for a Masters’ degree. While playing for her University, she tried out for West Ham and was signed by the Hammers on a one-year contract.
Obviously, Chauhan wasn’t happy with the result in her first game for West Ham, but she couldn’t stop raving about the experience. “I'm not happy about the result. I could have played better. But of course I have watched the West Ham men's team on television and it was like a dream come true when I donned their jersey with the same logo," she said.
Taking social media by storm
Also thrilled to bits are Chauhan’s employers, West Ham. Chauhan’s achievement has gone viral over social media, leading to huge influx of followers (mostly from India) for the official West Ham Ladies twitter handle. The club milked the attention as much as possible, even posting a tweet in Hindi:
They even jokingly wondered if India’s population could help them reach the 20,000-follower mark, before admitting that they’d lost count.
Chauhan might be the darling of the Indian media right now, but she’s not afraid of speaking her mind. In a detailed interview to TheHardTackle in 2013, she spoke openly about the problems plaguing Indian football, chief among them being ironically the lack of media support.
Not much seems to have changed though. Women’s football still has no takers in India and there is still no word about the Indian Women’s Super League, announced with much fanfare last year, as the female equivalent of the Indian Super League. Maybe Chauhan’s achievement will convince the All Indian Football Federation to change its mind about a professional football league for women.
If the scale of Chauhan’s achievement hasn’t struck you yet, here’s an interesting fact to provide some context: unlike the i-League or the Indian Super League, there is no professional league for women’s football in India. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Oh, and this despite the Indian women’s football team being ranked a cool 100 places above their male counterparts. The women’s team was ranked 56 while the men were ranked 156 on August 18, 2015.
Never mind that West Ham lost the game 0-5. For the 22-year old from Delhi, this is a massive achievement, a culmination of the extraordinary effort she’s put in to get this far. The season is long, and don’t put it past Chauhan to come back with a bang.
A sporting prodigy
In her teens, Chauhan represented her school in sports as varied as basketball, javelin throw and shot put. However the switch to football came when one of her coaches noticed her expert catching abilities and suggested she take up game. The rest was history – Chauhan excelled at the trials and soon became a member of the U-19 Delhi team, at the tender age of 15.
The path to national colours came along in two years. She was selected for the U-19 Indian team. The next feather in her cap was her performance for the senior team in the 2012 SAFF Women’s Championship. In an ultimately victorious campaign for India, Chauhan was at her very best, keeping a clean sheet in three out of four games for India, conceding just once against Nepal in the final. Quite understandably, she is India’s first-choice goalkeeper at present.
Chauhan then moved to Loughborough University in Leicestershire to study for a Masters’ degree. While playing for her University, she tried out for West Ham and was signed by the Hammers on a one-year contract.
Obviously, Chauhan wasn’t happy with the result in her first game for West Ham, but she couldn’t stop raving about the experience. “I'm not happy about the result. I could have played better. But of course I have watched the West Ham men's team on television and it was like a dream come true when I donned their jersey with the same logo," she said.
Taking social media by storm
Also thrilled to bits are Chauhan’s employers, West Ham. Chauhan’s achievement has gone viral over social media, leading to huge influx of followers (mostly from India) for the official West Ham Ladies twitter handle. The club milked the attention as much as possible, even posting a tweet in Hindi:
INDIA: Hum dil se west ham ladies me Indian fans ka svagat krte hai Aur apsabko humme yaha follow krne ko aamantrit krte hai #COYI
— West Ham Ladies (@westhamladies) August 17, 2015They even jokingly wondered if India’s population could help them reach the 20,000-follower mark, before admitting that they’d lost count.
INDIA: Trying to work out what percentage of India's population we'd need to follow us to get us to 20k! I lost count!! #COYI
— West Ham Ladies (@westhamladies) August 17, 2015Chauhan might be the darling of the Indian media right now, but she’s not afraid of speaking her mind. In a detailed interview to TheHardTackle in 2013, she spoke openly about the problems plaguing Indian football, chief among them being ironically the lack of media support.
“...during the SAFF matches there were no updates given to the public through any medium, news or through social networking sites while our neighboring country Nepal, against whom we played the finals had a whole website dedicated to only the SAFF championship and regular updates of every match being played there was posted.”
Not much seems to have changed though. Women’s football still has no takers in India and there is still no word about the Indian Women’s Super League, announced with much fanfare last year, as the female equivalent of the Indian Super League. Maybe Chauhan’s achievement will convince the All Indian Football Federation to change its mind about a professional football league for women.
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