Sunil Chhetri: Indian footballer in the same league as Messi and Ronaldo

The Indian national football team won their ninth South Asian Football Confederation (SAFF) title on Tuesday after defeating Kuwait on penalties. At the center of the victory was one man – Indian captain Sunil Chhetri. He has served Indian football for over a decade and inspired a generation of players. Sports writer Gautam Bhattacharyya follows the player’s illustrious journey.

A motley crew of football writers from India traveling to cover the FIFA World Cup are often faced with the question: does their country really play football?

The element of surprise is not unexpected. Despite its reputation as a huge market for football tourism, India has not been able to let go of its cricket craze.

But this is where Sunil Chhetri, the long-serving Indian captain, stands out.

The 38-year-old goal machine, who led his country to a modest Inter-Continental Cup and SAFF title in the past three weeks, is currently the third-highest international goalscorer among active footballers.

He has 93 strikes from 142 games – the top two places belong to Cristiano Ronaldo (123 goals from 200 games) and Lionel Messi (103 goals from 175).

On the all-time list, Chhetri ranks fourth ahead of Iranian legend Ali Daei with 109 goals in 148 matches.

His story is made all the more extraordinary by the fact that the top 10 footballers of all time list includes stars from countries with impeccable footballing heritage – with Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas in sixth place (84 goals) and Poland’s Robert Lewandowski. finished eighth (79 goals).

Compare that to the football credentials of the country Chhetri hails from. The last time India reached the podium in a major championship was bronze more than 50 years ago at the 1970 Asian Games, while their Fifa ranking has hovered around a hundred points for as long as they can remember.

The Blue Tigers – as the national team is called – acquitted themselves well by now reaching two Asian Cup finals on the trot, although Asia’s qualification spot for the World Cup has remained a dream.

Chhetri thrives in this ecosystem and he feels it with immense pride in the shirt.

His achievements have not gone completely unnoticed – Fifa produced a documentary about him last year called Captain Fantastic, which can be viewed on the Fifa+ channel.

Any conversation with Chhetri inevitably leads to him being in a goalscoring competition with two of the game’s superheroes: Ronaldo and Messi.

Chhetri quotes Bob Houghton – the respected British coach under whom he started his journey in Indian colors – to put things into perspective: “You may not have the skills of Ronaldo or score goals like him, but nobody can stop you from working as hard as him.”

Nice words, but how does he maintain an impressive goal-scoring ratio in a country whose core participations mainly come from smaller tournaments like the SAFF Championship, Intercontinental Cup, Asian Cup qualifiers or Asian Cup finals and friendlies?

The Asian Games have remained out of bounds since Chhetri’s arrival, while the Nehru Cup invitational – where he has nine goals – has also been suspended.

The SAFF title, which India won after the final against Kuwait in Bengaluru on Tuesday, has accounted for almost 25% of his goals so far (24).

Of these, 18 came in friendlies, 13 in the Intercontinental Cup, nine in Fifa World Cup qualifiers and the Nehru Cup in both, while the rest were done in AFC events and the King’s Cup.

He has scored four hat-tricks so far, including one against Pakistan in the SAFF. Yes, the quality of some opponents can be the odd laugh, but then there are no freebies in international football.

It is to Chhetri’s credit that after all these years he is still the Blue Tigers’ main scorer – and he has maintained that hunger. The recently concluded SAFF championship proves this.

He started with a hat-trick against Pakistan in their opening match and took a total of six wickets – a strike rate that speaks to phenomenal consistency and focus. But it also begs the question, “Who after Chhetri?”

No prizes for guessing that his longevity in international football and his work ethic are the key factors behind Chhetri’s success.

An example of this: the 2022-23 season was his 18th year at international level and 21st in the club circuit. In June 2005, Chhetri earned his first cap – the same year as Messi and two years after the great Ronaldo.

In a free-wheeling chat during India’s Asia Cup qualifiers in Kolkata last year, Chhetri explained what keeps him going: “It’s just about the little sacrifices at the end of the day.”

“It’s just about what I eat and how much I sleep. With the kind of good life I’ve been blessed with by God, it’s not a big deal to choose broccoli over biryani – I know there’s plenty of time for that kind of indulgence when I’ve finished the game. Several players were started in my time and were at my level or even better.But they couldn’t handle the physical demands [of the game],” he said.

However, his years of experience at international and club level have helped him understand his body better and make subtle tactical changes to prolong his career.

In the last edition of the Indian Super League (ISL), the talismanic Chhetri was no longer an automatic choice in the starting line-up for his club team Bengaluru FC, but featured more often as a super sub.

This kept him fresh in the rigors of national duties. He didn’t operate at the pace he used to – just choosing to lie in wait and then break into critical, short bursts of speed to get to the ball when it mattered most.

Speaking about his chances at the Asia Cup in January in Doha (where India have been grouped with World Cup regulars Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria), Chhetri said: “It’s a sign of our progress and a big step forward. time, it’s a small step in the context of where we want to be . If you take the top teams in Asia – Japan, Iran, Saudi Arabia – you will see that they always want to play with better and higher ranked teams. This is how you improve . In the Asian Cup we play with higher ranked teams. Then you can judge your progress, how much you have improved as a team.”

Qualifying matches for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will feature a larger 48 teams, will begin in September.

Chhetri, who has just signed a one-year contract extension with his club and plans to stay on as long as he enjoys the game, is sure to be part of that campaign too – although it’s surely time to walk off into the golden sunset. not far.

But so far, no one, including the team’s Croatian coach Igor Stimac, has an answer to this “who-after-Chhetri” question.