Jigmet Chunzen of Aspire F.C named skipper in debut year\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
PUNE, :<\/strong>\u00a0Pune-based Aspire Football Club has emerged as a major contributor to Indian women\u2019s futsal, with three of its players \u2014\u00a0Jigmet Chunzen, Ritika Singh, and Pooja Gupta\u00a0\u2014 earning selection in the Indian Women\u2019s Futsal Team for the\u00a0inaugural SAFF Women\u2019s Futsal Championship 2026, scheduled to be held in\u00a0Thailand.<\/p>\n The 14-member Indian squad has been announced by head coach\u00a0Joshuah Vaz\u00a0for the historic SAFF tournament. Notably, seven players in the squad bring along valuable Asian exposure, having featured in the\u00a0AFC Women\u2019s Futsal Asian Cup 2025 Qualifiers\u00a0held last January.<\/p>\n In a landmark moment for Indian futsal,\u00a0midfielder Jigmet Chunzen, who hails from\u00a0Ladakh, has been named the\u00a0captain of the Indian team\u00a0and will make her senior India debut at the championship. Jigmet\u2019s selection is historic, as she becomes the\u00a0first-ever player from Ladakh\u00a0to be selected for the Indian Women\u2019s Futsal Team.<\/p>\n The other two Aspire India players,\u00a0Pooja Gupta and Ritika Singh, will be representing the national team for the\u00a0second consecutive time, having donned Indian colours in the international futsal circuit last January as well.<\/p>\n The Indian team arrived in Thailand on\u00a0January 7, following a\u00a0month-long preparatory camp in Bengaluru, aimed at fine-tuning tactics and match readiness ahead of the championship.<\/p>\n India have been drawn in a competitive group alongside\u00a0Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka. All matches will be played at the\u00a0Nonthaburi Stadium\u00a0in Nonthaburi, Thailand.<\/p>\n India will kick off their SAFF Women\u2019s Futsal Championship campaign against\u00a0Maldives on Tuesday, January 13, 2026. The team will then face\u00a0Bangladesh (January 15),\u00a0Nepal (January 17),\u00a0Pakistan (January 19),\u00a0Bhutan (January 23), and\u00a0Sri Lanka (January 25).<\/p>\n At the conclusion of the seven-round league format, the\u00a0table toppers will be crowned the first-ever SAFF Women\u2019s Futsal Champions, marking a significant milestone in the growth of women\u2019s futsal in South Asia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jigmet Chunzen of Aspire F.C named skipper in debut year\u00a0 PUNE, :\u00a0Pune-based Aspire Football Club has emerged as a major contributor to Indian women\u2019s futsal, with three of its players \u2014\u00a0Jigmet Chunzen, Ritika Singh, and Pooja Gupta\u00a0\u2014 earning selection in the Indian Women\u2019s Futsal Team for the\u00a0inaugural SAFF Women\u2019s Futsal Championship 2026, scheduled to be…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1504,"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1502\/revisions\/1504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/samajsanchar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}