Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Phnom Penh: Fresh from a jaw-dropping introduction to international football, pioneering Cambodian women's national team captain Huot Koemhong is set to embark on a historic move to the United States.
The 20-year-old has been awarded a scholarship at Bryant and Stratton College, in a move which also presents her an opportunity to play for the Rochester Lady Lancers club in the second-tier United Women's Soccer League.
The move comes in the wake of Huot's sensational performance against Timor-Leste in last month's AFF Women's Championship, where the Cambodian skipper scored six goals as her side romped to a 12-0 win in their first competitive senior outing.
Huot, who reportedly holds the long-term ambition of coaching her country's fledgling women's national team, has been an active participant in Cambodian football, both on and off the field, since her early teens.
She represented Cambodia as a player in the U-14 AFC Festival of Football in 2011, has served as a development coach at former Cambodian League champions Phnom Penh Crown and participated in the Japan Football Association's 2017 Women's International Coach Course in Osaka.
Now, at the tender of age of 20, the talented forward has the opportunity to unleash her skills in the home of the three-time World Champions and current world number one women's national team.
Huot will become the second member of the Cambodian women's national team to ply her trade in the US, following in the footsteps of the Australian-raised defender Sandra Hill, who currently turns out for the Phoenix-based Grand Canyon University in the college system.