About Aditi Chauhan
Former India captain and goalkeeper. The first Indian to play in the Premier League, keeping goal for West Ham United.
Aditi Chauhan built an entire playing career inside Indian women's football, and saw exactly where it breaks: talented girls with nowhere structured to go after their first taste of the game. She Kicks is her answer to that gap. As a former India captain and goalkeeper who had to carve her own path abroad, she built this organisation so the next generation finds the path already laid, from a first kick to professional and national representation.
Join the She Kicks ecosystem arrow_forward"She Kicks is not a celebrity brand with a fancy logo. It grew straight out of the gaps a player lived through, and came home to fix."
From India to West Ham United
Aditi did not wait for the pathway to exist. She left home to test herself in England, kept goal in the Premier League when no Indian had done it before, and carried what she learned there back to a game that had none of the same structure. She founded She Kicks in 2018 while still playing, and when she retired in 2025 she gave it everything, full time. That is the ground She Kicks is built on.
A career that broke new ground
- sports_soccer 57 caps for the Indian women's national football team.
- timeline A playing career spanning 2008 to 2025, which she looked back on when she reflected on her retirement from the game.
- public First Indian to play for a Premier League club, signing for West Ham United in 2015 and going on to play there through 2018.
- verified A top tier domestic career too, having signed a professional contract with a top tier club competing in the IWL, India's top division, and AFC Championships.
- rocket_launch She earned that West Ham move through her own efforts, and later channelled the same drive into a platform for girls who aspire to go professional.
She did not arrive at football by the usual route. Before the gloves, she was a state-level basketball player and a karate black belt. That athletic grounding shaped a goalkeeper who went on to compete against some of the best players in the world. She lined up against Marta and the Brazilian national team, and she has spoken about the surreal experience of meeting David Beckham. Her years in England gave her something she now applies daily: a close, first-hand look at how a professional, tier-based football system actually works.
The road was rarely smooth. Aditi fought back from two severe ACL tears, injuries that could have ended her career on someone else's terms. She kept playing, then chose her own exit. That mindset, welfare and longevity over short-term gain, sits at the centre of how She Kicks treats its own players. Her breakthrough in England, unheard of for an Indian goalkeeper at the time, turned her into a reference point for a generation of girls who had never seen that pathway exist before.
Retiring on Her Own Terms
Aditi stepped away from professional play in 2025, not because she was finished, but because she saw a bigger job waiting off the pitch. She was clear that she still had plenty left to give and wanted a bigger role in women's football: building the sport rather than only playing it. She retired to shape the future of Indian women's football, and She Kicks is where that work now lives.
Education and Coaching Credentials
The instincts come from the pitch. The way She Kicks is built comes from formal training in how sport and organisations run.
That combination, elite playing experience paired with a sports management education and broadcast work, is rare in Indian football. Most people in the game have one of those, not all of them. It is why She Kicks is designed as a structure, not a single coaching clinic.
- school B.Com (Honours), Jesus and Mary College, Delhi University.
- workspace_premium MSc Sports Management, Loughborough University, UK, 2014 to 2015.
- sports AFC 'C' Diploma and Goalkeeping Level 1 coaching certification.
- mic FIFA World Cup Broadcaster and Expert Commentator.
A Voice for Structural Reform
Aditi has become one of the clearest voices calling for change in the Indian women's game. She argues that talent has never been the problem, structure has, pointing to where it went wrong for India at the AFC Women's Asia Cup as proof that ambition needs a real plan behind it.
Reform, said out loud
She has called for structural and cultural reforms across the domestic game, a case she has pressed repeatedly in the national press.
A tier system for India
Drawing on the tier system she experienced at West Ham, she campaigns for the same professional layering in India.
A World Cup within reach
She believes the World Cup dream is turning into reality for Indian women's football, while being honest that momentum alone is not enough.
Her belief is that real progress comes from deep, local investment in players, not from headlines. She has also stayed close to the game as a FIFA World Cup broadcaster and expert commentator, work that keeps her voice in the national conversation. She keeps making that case on camera too, breaking down the game and speaking up for the women's game. She has played at the top, coached with formal certification, and analysed the sport on air, and she brings all three perspectives to how She Kicks develops players. Her recent public case for reform runs alongside real progress on the pitch, including India's AFC Asia Cup qualification and the rise of the She Kicks Football League.
The Ecosystem She Built
She Kicks is India's first women's football ecosystem, and Aditi has structured it so no girl falls through a gap the way an earlier generation did. It is built on four core pillars: a football academy, a competitive club, city leagues, and a Section 8 foundation, creating a unified pathway from a player's first kick to professional and national representation.
Academy
Grassroots to advanced training that develops players from the ground up.
shieldClub
A competitive route giving players real match exposure at a serious standard.
emoji_eventsLeague
A women's football league in a long-duration format, open to players regardless of skill level.
volunteer_activismFoundation
The Aditi Chauhan Foundation, a Section 8 organisation running the She Kicks Grassroot Workshop and backing scouted underprivileged girls.
The club, the academy, and the foundation are three distinct entities, kept separate on purpose so it is always clear what each one does, and cross-linked so a player can move between them. To learn more or get involved, start with the Partners and CSR page if you want to support the mission, or the blog to follow the story as it grows.
Her Work on the Ground
The vision is not only on paper. Through the She Kicks Academy and the Aditi Chauhan Foundation, Aditi has taken girls' football into cities and states across India, reaching more than 2,000 girls so far. Her footprint reaches well beyond Delhi NCR.
Grassroots festivals and academies
Through the Foundation, She Kicks runs grassroots festivals and workshops for girls in different parts of India, and some have grown into ongoing academy programmes, including dedicated training for scouted and underprivileged girls.
School and community partnerships
She Kicks partners with schools and community programmes to deliver multi day coaching camps with its own coaching staff, part of Aditi's wider work building pathways for girls in football.
A growing footprint
She Kicks keeps adding new training bases as it grows, extending structured coaching into more cities across India over time rather than staying tied to a single base.
Recognised for gender equality
Aditi's work has drawn a UNESCO India acknowledgement for gender equality, a mandate that sits at the heart of everything She Kicks builds.
Vision 2035
The long term goal is a clear pipeline that helps feed India's push toward the 2035 FIFA Women's World Cup, built city by city through the academy, league and foundation.
Recognition & the Journey
From Loughborough University London to being featured in more than one question on Kaun Banega Crorepati.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions people ask most about Aditi Chauhan and She Kicks.
Aditi Chauhan is a former captain and goalkeeper of the India women's national team, and the first Indian footballer to play for a Premier League club, West Ham United. She is best known today as the founder of She Kicks, India's first women's football ecosystem for girls and women.
Yes. Aditi Chauhan played competitive football from 2008 to 2025 at state and national level in India and kept goal for West Ham United, becoming the first Indian to play in England's Premier League. She retired from professional playing in 2025.
Aditi Chauhan is one of India's most recognised goalkeepers and a former captain of the women's national team. She holds a Master's in Sports Management from Loughborough University in the UK and is a licensed coach, and today she runs the She Kicks football ecosystem.
No. Aditi Chauhan has retired from professional playing and now works full time on developing the women's game off the pitch. She leads She Kicks, building pathways for the next generation, and also works as a FIFA World Cup broadcaster and expert commentator.
Aditi Chauhan keeps her personal life private and directs public attention to her football career and her work with She Kicks, India's first women's football ecosystem, which she founded to build professional pathways for girls and women.
She Kicks is for girls and women who want to play football at any level, from a first kick to professional and national representation. The academy develops players from grassroots to advanced, the league is open to players regardless of skill level, and the foundation backs scouted and underprivileged girls with dedicated training.
Ready to Be Part of It?
Whether you want to train, compete, or support the mission, She Kicks has a place for you.
Get in touch: shekicksfa03@gmail.com or call +91 91767 91552. You can also reach us through the contact page.