The irresistible success of footballer Jyoti Chouhan

Chouhan has become a trendsetter by becoming the first Indian footballer who is an indispensable part of an European club

- Deepti Patwarchan

An Indian woman, playing in a European football League, scoring in a Cup final. Sounds familiar? This isn't just one of the sub-plots of Gurinder Chadha's hilarious and path-breaking 2002 movie, Bend It Like Beckham. It happened in real life too. On 4 June, a Sunday, Jyoti Chouhan became the first player from the country, male or female, to score in a Cup final in Europe. The spunky 23-year-old found the back of the net for ZNK Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian Women's Football Cup final.

One of the more telling scenes, towards the end of the movie, is when Chadha's protagonist, Jess Bhamra, prepares to take a free kick in the final of a European tournament. Having snuck out of her sister's wedding to play the crucial game, Jess imagines that the player wall is made up of the elderly, naysaying family members, clearly mortified that she is running around in shorts and playing football.

It is unlikely that Chouhan, perhaps too young when the movie first hit the screens, had hallucinations of these hostile friendlies as she went for goal. But she's well aware of the metaphorical obstacles, born out of social and cultural expectations, and the crippling doubt they can inflict.

Chouan's moment came in the 47th minute of the match against ZNK Split. Unmarked, the Indian received the ball from the right, controlled it with the first touch and side-footed accurately past the diving goalkeeper. Chouhan had also assisted Dinamo's first goal in the 10th minute.