- NET Web Desk
Maibam Linthoingambi Devi – the 23-yrs-old woman footballer from Manipur’s Thoubal district, has been recognized as the ‘Best Goalkeeper of Hero Indian Women’s League 2021-2022’; after maintaining eight clean sheets with multiple saves for her team Kickstart FC during the Hero IWL 2021-2022 season.
Popularly known as Linthoi, the footballer helped her team to secure third position in the recently-concluded Hero IWL held at Bhubaneswar, Orissa.
Kickstart FC is a Bengaluru-based ‘Karnataka Super Division’ team and an Indian professional football club.
Its worthy to note that Linthoi is also one of the goalkeepers of the India women’s national football team.
She was also among the six women football players from Manipur to be part of the national football team for the friendlies against UAE, Bahrain, Tunisia and Chinese Taipei in the run-up to AFC Women Asia Cup 2022.
Linthoi has come through the youth system having represented India in the U16, and U19 AFC Championships, before sealing her berth in the senior squad in 2018.
Known for her acrobatics, her first significant breakthrough came, when she was selected as the first-choice goalkeeper in the 2nd round of the AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifiers.