Ashalata Devi - Indian women’s football team’s first centurion

For over a decade, Ashalata Devi has been a proverbial rock in the Indian women’s football team’s defence.

Nominated for the prestigious AFC Player of the Year award in 2019, the current India captain has already proven herself as one of the best football players, the country has produced.

The ace defender added yet another feather to her illustrious career by becoming the first Indian woman to play in 100 international football matches for India. Ashalata Devi achieved the milestone when she stepped onto the field against Pakistan for India’s opening match of the SAFF Women’s Championships 2024 in Kathmandu.

She also became only the second Indian footballer to earn 100 international caps after men’s football team legend Sunil Chhetri, who retired earlier this year after playing in 151 matches.

A born leader

Time and again Ashalata Devi has proven her credentials as a leader and interestingly, it was the same quality which initiated her career in football.

Born in Imphal, Manipur, on July 3, 1993, Ashalata was 13 years old when she took up the sport. Studying in the seventh standard at the time, the young Ashalata was captivated by boys playing football in her school.

“I always saw boys playing but never watched a match of girls playing. I requested a teacher from school that I also want to play. He said that you can't play alone, you need a team,” Ashalata had revealed.

The situation prompted Ashalata to take the initiative and she managed to convince her friends to play. Thus, started the journey of a future national team captain.

There was no looking back from there. At the age of 15, in 2008, Ashalata broke into the U17 Indian women’s team. Interestingly, it was the same year that she found her niche as a defender.

Ashalata, who had primarily played as a midfielder till then, made the switch to defence while playing for Manipuri club Kryphsa FC on the insistence of Chaoba Devi, a former India international and women’s team coach.

Ashalata Devi’s achievements and titles

The change suited Ashalata’s gritty-yet-composed playing style and in March 2011, earned senior debut against Bangladesh in a pre-Olympics match in Dhaka.

Since then Ashalata has made the centre-back position in the Indian team her own. She was a part of the Indian team that won South Asian Games gold medals in 2016 and 2019 and the SAFF Women's Championships four times in succession - 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2019.

Ashalata’s ability to lead from the front has also seen her successfully captain the Indian women’s football team since taking over the reins from the legendary Bembem Devi.

In 2015, Ashalata also signed for Maldivian football club New Radiant in the Dhivehi Premier League, becoming only the second Indian woman to play for an overseas club after Bembem. The Indian ace also helped her team to the title that year.

She has also won the Indian Women’s League (IWL), the premier domestic women’s football competition thrice - 2018-19 with Sethu FC and 2021-22 and 2022-23 with Gokulam Kerala. She was also named the AIFF Women’s Player of the Year for the 2018-19 season.

In 2019, Ashalata Devi was also in the final three-player shortlist for the AFC Player of the Year award alongside the People’s Republic of China’s Li Ying and eventual winner Japan's Saki Kumagai – a former Women’s FIFA World Cup winner and a silver medallist at the 2012 London Olympics.

No Indian woman other than Ashalata has been nominated for the honour.