Dalima Chibber (Defender)

Dalima Chibber (Defender)

Not many people can claim to have made 10,000 people do a double take in unison.

That's exactly what Dalima Chibber did when her long range free kick against Nepal at the SAFF Women's Championship did a surreal dolphin dive to descend dramantically into the net past the dumbfounded keeper.

The video of the world class goal went viral, and Dalima became an overnight sensation. But her newfound stardom did not distract her from the unrelenting focus on her playing career. The stalwart defender who has earned 30 international caps so far went on to play a key role in India's praiseworthy Olympic Qualifiers campaign.

All of 21 years old, Dalima is already one of the more experience players in Indian women's football. In an exclusive interview on the TFG Indian Football Podcast back in February, she detailed how she came to play the sport, and how her father, a prominent coach, instilled in her an unwavering dedication to the game.

After performing well for the India U-17 and U-19 teams, she made it into the senior national team in 2016 and never looked back. She already has two SAFF Women's Championship gold medals in her belt, and when she found her international scoring boots earlier this year, it only increased the value she brought to the Blue Tigresses.

But her professional club career, so far, remains trophyless. She played for FC Pune City in the inaugural IWL and even scored a couple of goals. But the team lost to Rising Student's Club in the semi-finals. Last season, she played for India Rush who had a dismal campaign finishing 6th out of 7, winning only once.

But for the first time, at Gokulam Kerala FC, she is with a team that is being seen as a title contender. It will take every bit of her experience at the back for GKFC to pull ahead of clubs like Rising Student's and Sethu FC. But winning her first piece of silverware playing for a club, which would also be Gokulam Kerala FC's very first national level trophy, can't be a task that's easily done.