Indian women could reach FIFA World Cup before the men: Dalima Chhibber

India international Dalima Chhibber believes India’s women have the potential to reach the FIFA Women’s World Cup before the men’s team, but says that potential needs a proper pathway to become reality.

Speaking to The Bridge on the sidelines of the inaugural SuperNova Football Championship in Bengaluru, Chhibber pointed to the growing interest in girls’ football while stressing that participation alone will not be enough.

For her, the next step is creating a consistent system that develops players from a young age and gives them the experience required to compete internationally.

“There is so much potential,” Chhibber said. “I know everybody keeps talking about that, yes, girls are going to reach the World Cup before the men do. And I certainly believe that as well.”

Chhibber's optimism comes from what she has seen at the grassroots level, including at the SuperNova Football Championship, where schoolgirls across age groups have been given an opportunity to compete.

“It’s been lovely to see the excitement, the enthusiasm, the young footballers,” she said. “It’s very rare that you see so many teams and so many girls turn out, come play, and actually have fun.”

For Chhibber, that enjoyment is not separate from development. She believes young players need both the freedom to express themselves and the opportunity to continually improve their technical abilities.

“I wouldn’t say one certain thing is very important,” she said. “Even when you’re learning, even when you keep playing, the more you’re exposed to it, you also need to have fun and enjoy.”

That combination of exposure and development is particularly important to Chhibber because of how different her own playing journey was.

When she began playing, she did not have Indian women footballers to look up to. She relied on foreign players and male footballers for inspiration and eventually grew up playing with boys because women’s football had not yet developed to the level it has today.

“I didn’t have - first of all, there weren’t any women footballers who were role models or somebody to look up to,” she said.

That, she believes, is changing.

Chhibber sees initiatives such as SuperNova as part of the larger infrastructure required to keep that change going. But she believes the ultimate objective should be much broader than individual tournaments.

“We need continuity, we need consistency,” she said. “We see a lot of players dropping out and players randomly being picked up for the national game camps. And I think that does not really help the larger system.”

Instead, she wants a pathway that can identify and develop players from their earliest years, eventually giving them the tools to progress towards the national team.

“The future is very bright,” she said. “There is so much potential that just needs the right guidance in the pathway.”

Experience remains the missing piece

While Chhibber believes Indian players can match their international counterparts technically, she feels the gap becomes more evident in physical development and, crucially, exposure to high-level competition.

“Football... they know how to pass a ball, I know how to pass a ball. They know how to kick a ball, I know how to kick a ball,” she said.

The difference, she explained, can emerge in areas such as speed, strength and the ability to adapt to the intensity of international football.

Her own experience playing in Canada gave her a direct understanding of that difference.

“The football is so fast. It might not be tiki-taka over there, but it’s very physical. It’s very fast, and I had to develop and adapt to that,” Chhibber said.

That is why she believes FIFA international windows need to be utilised more effectively for the Indian national team.

Players such as Manisha Kalyan have gained experience playing abroad, but Chhibber argues that the national team as a whole needs greater exposure to international opposition.

“Till the time I am not competing against the teams that I have to play in the competition, and I’m not in that habit, I can’t develop myself because I don’t know where I land,” she said.

During her own stint in Canada, Chhibber regularly encountered players from Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Germany and the United States. That environment, she believes, provided a level of competitive experience that cannot simply be replicated through domestic football.

“There is no better teacher than experience,” she said. “The more you play, the more you learn, the more you improve.”

Building the player beyond the pitch

Chhibber also believes India's challenge is not simply about technical football training.

For young players to reach their potential, she said, development needs to be holistic, covering physical preparation, nutrition, movement, mental wellbeing and the broader demands of being an athlete.

“Nobody knows what is going on in my head. Am I stressed about something else? Am I lifting the correct amount of weight? Are my movements and techniques right? Am I eating the food that I need to eat?” she said.

That, according to Chhibber, is where a structured curriculum can make a difference.

She believes the technical gap between young players in India and elsewhere is not necessarily as large as it may appear. At five or six years old, she argued, children can have broadly similar basic abilities. What separates them over time is the environment in which they develop.

“With the right guidance, right curriculum and everything, when all of that comes in, there is like a structure around it that helps,” she said.

And Chhibber is convinced that once such a structure is established consistently across the country, Indian girls can make the next leap.

“I certainly do,” she said when asked whether she sees India qualifying for a World Cup in the future. “Maybe not in the near future, but of course, eventually we will see that happening.”

For a player who began her own journey without Indian women’s football role models, the sight of large numbers of young girls turning out to play represents a significant change.

“The way forward - need a guide, need guidance, need a path, need somebody to take them forward,” she said.

For Chhibber, that is the difference between potential and progress.