KEEPING THE GOAL HIGH

India might not be playing the Women’s World Cup, but its captain, Aditi Chauhan, is getting the ball rolling

Be the exception,” reads Aditi Chauhan’s bicep tattoo. The captain of India’s women’s football team takes the maxim seriously. In 2015, she became the first Indian woman to play English League football. The goalkeeper spent two seasons play

ing for West Ham United Ladies. After returning to India in 2018, Chauhan joined India Rush club, which competed in the Indian Women’s League. After that, she led India to its fifth consecutive South Asian Football Federation Women’s Cup in March this year.

Unlike women’s cricket, women’s football has yet to peak in India. That may soon change—India won hosting rights for the FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup in 2020. “It could be a huge turning point for women’s football in India,” says Delhi-based Chauhan, who was in Mumbai recently for the launch of a new Skechers shoe. “It puts us on the world stage.”

Busy being a football pundit for the telecast of the ongoing Women’s World Cup, Chauhan thinks it is unfair to compare the women’s game to the men's in India—the latter has more visibility, with the Indian Super League and ILeague competitions. That said, she adds that social media is changing things. “People are now valuing women’s football,” she says. “We are heading in the right direction and the pay is also improving.”

Even as she pursues a professional career, Chauhan runs She Kicks, a football academy for girls. “I have, at times, wondered if I should have waited until the end of my career to start it. But I feel it’s the best decision I have taken,” says Chauhan, who has a sports management degree from Loughborough University. “I want to contribute to the development of the sport. The platform I couldn’t get when I started off—that’s what we are trying to provide girls.”