With Chauhan joining West Ham, India now has two national team goalkeepers plying their trade in Europe.
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She was delighted to join the West Ham ladies from Loughborough, and feels that the team is a great platform for her to improve her goalkeeping skills as she will be able to face better players and teams in this new league.
The Hammers were on the receiving end of a 5-0 drubbing at the hands of Coventry City in the FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division but it was nevertheless a momentous occasion for India’s shot-stopper. West Ham’s senior men’s team is a regular at England’s top-flight football, the EPL. She becomes the first Indian woman footballer to have been signed by a top English club.
It’s a moment of pride not just for 22-year-old Aditi Chauhan, but also for the entire country today. “I trained hard and achieved it. I represented the under-19 Indian national women’s team for AFC Qualifiers at Malaysia”, Chauhan was quoted as saying by Hindustan Times. Her football career began in school when her school coach asked her to participate in the under 19 team trials.
Aditi represented India at the women’s football competition at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games. “Hi all! #COY”, The English club stated on Twitter on Monday. The 22-year old is pursuing MSc in sports management at Loughborough University and started playing for her university team.
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“Thank you all for the overwhelming response and wishes. We need to build ourselves back, get together and move forward”, she told the club’s YouTube channel. “The quality of Football is competitive here and I hope it helps me evolve as a Player”, she said. Tanvie Hans – not an India global – is also playing for Fulham in the fourth tier but is yet to make the cut in the first XI.
