By Asia Samachar | Malaysia |
Seventeen year-old Kanchen Kaur has been picked to join the Malayan Tigress B-20 team for the U20 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers game. The Malaysian team will face off host Cambodia in their first game tomorrow (March 10).
Placed in Group G, they will then meet Myanmar on Sunday (March 12). Pakistan had pulled out at the last minute.
When asked what her aspirations are for the U20 Asian Women’s Cup qualification, she told Asia Samachar: “I want to play hard and smart because I know I will be up against players with far more experience. I believe in my team and feel we are prepared.”
Kanchen is no stranger to the national women’s football team. She made her debut in 2019 when she was selected to play for the Asean football federation (AFF) in Thailand with the U15 Malayan Tigress team in Chonbhuri, Thailand. She was 13 then.
In May 2022, Kanchen and her elder sister Asheesh Kaur – then 16 and 17 years-old – were selected to join Malaysia’s women under-17 team for a UEFA invitational tourney in Mongolia. It was the first time the footballing sisters donned the national jersey together.
Kanchen was recently awarded as The Best Player for U16 category in the Malaysian Little League, a national league by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and Jabatan Belia Dan Sukan Negara (JBSN). The tourney is under the supervision of Education Ministry as it involved public and private school players nationwide.
Making the cut for the U20 team and being part of the starting 11 has been a goal and personal target she had set up for herself ever since getting her first break playing for the women’s adult team in 2022 when she was signed by Selangor Football Club (SFC) to represent Selangor for open women’s national league.
Under the tutelage of SFC head coach Razak, she was moulded to play as a defensive right back. It was a tough transition moving from attacking to defensive position but a move that highlighted her strengths because she could quickly switch from defense to an attacking role whenever necessary.
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