India jersey next goal for Mumbai's Harshika Jain after signing with Romanian club

Mumbai, Jul 28 (PTI) Having earned a spot in the first division Romanian club CS Atletic Olimpia Gherla, the 22-year-old Harshika Jain has also set her sights on fulfilling her dream of playing for the Indian team.

Mumbai's Harshika, who played for Gokulam Kerala in the Indian Women's League, will be the first Indian female player to feature in the first division league of Romania as she looks to expand her skills in Europe.

"My ambition is to of course play for India and have the colours of the Indian flag on my chest when I play. That's always been the dream and the ambition," Harshika, who has begun training with her new club, told PTI in an exclusive interaction on Monday.

"To win the championship with the club and then get into the Champions League and then go on to finding a better and bigger club to play with in Europe itself, or maybe somewhere else." For Harshika, staying abroad and playing in different leagues would also pave a way into the national side.

"Staying abroad and just trying to become better…. (But) whenever I get the chance to represent my country, that would be the best because that's always been my dream," she said.

Harshika said adjusting to the speed of the game in Europe will be crucial for her.

"The change (for her) I would say that I want to go more faster. Because the game, the speed of the play, of the game here is very fast. I want to pick up on that even more. It's only one touch, two touch and getting more game knowledge," she said.

"I am playing with the top players of the Romanian women's football here. We have almost three to four national players and a Moldovan national team player as well." Harshika's coach Varin Mehta, who has coached her for six years, said her training module has been designed keeping specific requirements in mind.

"Because I have played in Europe, I did have a sense of what kind of training and what kind of fitness and the style of play goes on," said Mehta, who was the fourth Indian to sign for a club when he linked with Belgium's Royal Antwerp FC.

"I have been coaching her that way and keeping that in mind when her fitness and her style of play was actually tried and tested here. She fitted in quite well because the speed of the game is high.

"She has the best team because they are fighting for the championship this year. If they win the championship, they will qualify to play the Women's Champions League," he added. PTI DDV SSC SSC