Bhubaneswar: The Indian Women Footballers have impressed us in the great extent in the Indian Women’s League 2022. Although foreigners like Elshaddai have topped the charts, the national players have not been any less. The tournament concluded with Gokulam Kerala FC retaining their title of Champions but at the same time players of Indian Arrows, Kickstart FC have been quite impactful. We here at the Sportslight Media chose the top five players of the Indian origin who have impressed us the most.
1. Manisha Kalyan:
The 20-year-old Gokulam Kerala FC forward is the second-highest goalscorer in the IWL with 11 goals to her name in just seven appearances. Being awarded the Emerging Female Footballer of the Year in 2020-21, Kalyan lived up to her reputation as she kept on delivering top-notch performances. Scoring 19 goals in only 11 appearances for Kerala in the IWL Kalyan came second in the top scorer chart. Kalyan’s performance have evoked interest from a lot of foreign clubs as well and reports suggest that Kalyan would soon be travelling for her trials.
2. Dalima Chhiber:
While Gokulam Kerala FC have scored 66 goals this season, they have conceded only four, keeping six clean sheets. As much as the credit to that goes to skipper Aditi Chauhan, it would not be fair to say that it was possible without a player like Dalima Chhiber who put herself on the line in spearheading the side’s defence and keep themselves in the title race.
3. Priyangka Naorem:
Being awarded the title of the IWL Emerging Player of Year, Priyangka Naorem continued to impress after becoming one of the most important players in the national outfit. The 19-year old also made her way into the top scorer list of IWL after scoring nine goals in 11 games along with teammate Apurna Narzary. However, Naorem is the only second Indian player to score a super hat-trick in IWL alongside Manisha Kalyan of Gokulam Kerala.
4. Apurna Narzary: Assam’s Apurba Narzary has been one the best players the AIFF set up had to offer. Scoring nine goals in 11 games, Narzary also made it to the top scorer charts. Narzary bagged quite a lot of Hero of the Match awards for her match winning performances and her sublime hat-trick in Arrows’ win against Odisha Police was a remembering worthy affair.
5. Hemnam Shilky Devi:
Thwe teenager debutants, Indian Arrows did a decent job as they attained a mid table finish with 19 points from 11 games. The team has also been one of the least conceding teams with only nine goals conceded while scoring 25. The team also kept six clean sheets in the process. While the whole outfit was impressive as a unit, the credit of being so stout in the defence goes to Shilky Devi who is set to Captain the FIFA U-17 WOMEN’S WORLD CUP in October.
