Ashalata Devi set for rare century in Indian football

Captain Ashalata Devi will become the first Indian woman footballer to play 100 international matches when she takes the field in the SAFF Championship opening match against Pakistan in Kathmandu on Thursday.

The 31-year-old Manipuri made her India debut in the pre-Olympics tournament in Dhaka against Bangladesh in March 2011, and the star defender has come a long way since then.

"When she pulled on an Indian shirt for the first time ... in the pre-Olympics in Dhaka against Bangladesh in March 2011, few would have imagined that Ashalata Devi would take Indian women's football by storm in quite the way she has," the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said while hailing Devi's feat.

Devi was called up for the India U-17 team in 2008 when she was 15.

Born in Imphal, she began playing football at the age of 13. She was initially with the Indian Railways football team and joined New Radiant Women's Football Club of Maldives in 2015.

Later, she played for Rising Student Club (Cuttack), KRYPHSA (Imphal), Sethu (Madurai) and Gokulam Kerala in the Indian Women's League. She is currently with East Bengal.

"I am excited and happy that I will play my 100th game against Pakistan. The focus, however, will be on winning all the games and taking the trophy back home. This is the main dream and motive for coming to Nepal,” Ashalata said after reaching here for the SAFF Championships.

"I am looking forward to all the matches in the championship because it is an extremely important tournament to us. We already suffered a setback in the last SAFF, but it will be different this time," she said in an AIFF release.

In the 2022 edition, India, then considered as overwhelming favourite, failed to defend the title.

"This is the sixth time I will play in SAFF. We were champions four times. I want to win this year's title for us because it's a special championship for me. We are determined to prove ourselves," she said.

Devi was a part of the Indian team that won two South Asian Games gold medals in 2016 and 2019. She was also part of the team that won the SAFF Women's Championship four times consecutively - in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2019.

She was one of the nominees for the AFC women's player of the year in 2019 and was named the AIFF women's player of the year for 2018–19.