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Sport does spring up prodigies and Indian football’s latest star – Aditi Chauhan is a fair example indeed. All of 23, she was introduced to the sport almost a decade ago and needless to say, hasn’t looked back since.
Now a professional with the West Ham ladies at Upton Park, the journey has been incredibly nice for her so far. From representing the Indian National Team at different international tournaments to playing for the prestigious Loughborough University, she has been prolific throughout to say the least.
As we caught up with her at a recently organized conference on sports in the capital, the young custodian talked about her year away from the country and how that has moulded her career, “It was a conscious decision to go to colleges which were prolific in football - while I attended JMC here in Delhi, the choice was simple when it came to shifting to the UK - Loughborough is perhaps the best place if you want to pursue any sport and once my application got accepted, I really had no second thoughts about going there.”
“The experience there has been wonderful and it somehow made up for the disappointment of not turning out for the Indian team here,” she mentioned.
Trying to become just the fourth Indian after Md. Saleem, Baichung Bhutia and Tanvie Hans to play professional football in the United Kingdom, young Aditi talked us through the process, saying, “While I was going to London, I was a little skeptical about what to expect but now I'm glad I did. As I mentioned, playing for the University did my confidence a world of good.”
“Then when the professional trials came along, I was mighty confident, knowing I had overcome my apprehensions and now possessed a belief that would let me achieve greater things. The results have been great too; in fact I just listed my first clean sheet before coming here. I am hoping I'll manage to carry forward the momentum and perhaps soon turn out for better teams in the league,” she added.
Maintaining football is her calling; she refuses to let success get in her head and derives inspiration from her friends who help her stay grounded. “Sheer determination and hard work will help me achieve what I want to,” says the girl who has been a trendsetter in the truest sense of the word and has her heart set on playing in the Champions League one day.
