Kathmandu. When captain Ashalata Devi takes the field for the opening match of the SAFF Championship against Pakistan here on Thursday, she will become the first Indian woman footballer to play 100 international matches. The 31-year-old player from Manipur made her debut for India in March 2011 against Bangladesh in the pre-Olympic tournament in Dhaka. The star defender has come a long way since then.
“When she wore the Indian shirt for the first time in the pre-Olympic match against Bangladesh in Dhaka in March 2011, very few people would have thought that Ashalata Devi would be the next woman in Indian women’s football,” the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said in a statement issued here. Will achieve such a position.” Ashalata was called for the India Under-17 team in 2008 when she was 15 years old.
Born in Imphal, this player started playing football at the age of 13. She was initially in the Indian Railways football team and joined New Radiant Women’s Football Club of Maldives in 2015. She then represented Rising Student Club (Cuttack), KRYPHSA (Imphal), Sethu (Madurai) and Gokulam Kerala in the Indian Women’s League in India. He is currently with East Bengal.
After reaching here, Ashalata said, “I am excited and happy that I will play my 100th match against Pakistan. However, our focus will be on winning all the matches and taking the trophy back home. This is the main dream and purpose of coming to Nepal.” She said, “I am looking forward to all the matches of the championship because it is a very important tournament for us. We have already suffered setbacks in the last SAIF, but this time it will be different.” India had failed to defend the title in the 2022 season.