The captain of the Indian women’s soccer team Loitongbam Ashalata Devi is currently on cloud nine, and the reason for this is that she has just been living one of her dreams.

Devi, also captain of Indian Women’s League team Gokulam Kerala, is considered one of the best defenders in Asia. The 29 year old recently witnessed one of the biggest FIFA World Cup finals live at the Doha Stadium.

Speaking to IANS, he shared his experience in Qatar and how he interacted with Moroccan star Achraf Hakimi.

Excerpt from interview:

How did you experience the FIFA World Cup?

I can’t explain it in words, it’s something everyone should experience. It is unreal and it is one of my dreams come true. Since I started watching football, my dream has been to watch the World Cup final. The atmosphere is fantastic, I’ve never experienced anything like this before.

Seeing Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe play so close is amazing. There’s so much I learned just by watching it and it’s something I want to add to my game. It also has to be one of the best soccer games I’ve ever seen.

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I hope this atmosphere somehow translates to India as well when we go out on the pitch. Football as a whole has a lot of opportunities to develop in India. I want to thank the “Athlete of the Day” from Adidas and Abhishek Sharma for making one of my dreams come true.

How was your interaction with Moroccan star Achraf Hakimi?

Achraf Hakimi is a great player; I have watched him and followed his style of play for a long time. His control, his skills, the way he controls himself on and off the pitch is something I want to soak up myself. Morocco had dreams of the world cup and playing as a unit, my interaction with him was deep and I learned a lot from him. He had very good suggestions for me.

You also met Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, how was your experience?

Nice to meet them. They are very enthusiastic to hear the development of Indian football. I am a big fan of their acting skills and surprised they know so much about me. It was really fun watching the final with them.

What’s your upcoming program?

Right now the focus is on the Indian Women’s League where I play for Gokulam Kerala FC. We enter the tournament as defending champions and hope to defend our title. We are a good group of players at Gokulam Kerala FC and we are playing very well.

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The owners, coaches, staff are all great and very supportive which helps us develop. We also came close to playing in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) tournament and became the first women’s team to do so since India, but due to unforeseen circumstances, that dream could not come true. We will work hard and realize the dream this time.

Olympic qualification is also fast approaching. How was the preparation so far?

The Tokyo Olympics were heartbreaking for us as we lost at the berth to advance to the third round of 2020 Olympics qualifying on goal difference after being held 3-3 by Myanmar. This time we didn’t want to wait for the last game and we trained hard. The goal is to qualify for the Paris Olympics, the whole team is motivated and will put all their efforts into achieving it.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)