He rose above the ordinariness of football in India
In a video lasting 9:51 minutes, Sunil Chhetri shared a journey that began under Sukhwinder Singh and will end in Kolkata on June 6 with Igor Stimac at the helm. “For all our sakes, let’s do a good game… And it’s a wrap,” he said in a social media post on Thursday morning announcing his international retirement.
Against Kuwait in Kolkata will be the last time he plays for India ending a career that began in Pakistan in 2005. For nearly 19 years, during which governments and prime ministers changed, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli’s stints as India captains flourished and ended, the number of substitutes in football increased from three to five and VAR became part of its vocabulary, he was a constant. Through a pandemic and birth pangs of the Indian Super League, Bob Houghton, Stephen Constantine and Stimac, he has been the first name India coaches have pencilled in. He will be missed.
That is as much because India don’t have a goal scorer who can match his efficiency (94 goals in 150 games) but also because he was a spark in a sport where excellence has eluded the men’s national team for over 50 years. Chhetri was the striker and skipper who rose above the ordinariness of India’s football environment and achieved international fame. When he asked Mumbai to come out and support India, they obliged with a full house.
A story on the internet has Lionel Messi asking an Indian fan at a World Cup about him. It may not be apocryphal. Only Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have scored more international goals than Chhetri among active players. That alone can be a thought happy enough for a new father to put his feet up. Add the Arjuna award (2011), Padma Shri (2019) – the second footballer after Bhaichung Bhutia to be given the honour while an active player – being named an Asian icon by the Asian Football Confederation, a documentary on FIFA+ and Chhetri will be the first to tell you that it has been a fantastic ride. A combination of duty, pressure and immense joy, he said about wearing the India shirt.
He is still the only Indian to have scored a hattrick in the final of the major tournament. That was in 2008 AFC Challenge Cup and Bhutia was still three years from retirement. That 4-1 win against Tajikistan in the AFC Challenge Cup helped India qualify for the Asian Cup in 2011. It would be the first time since 1984 that India were among Asian elite. Chhetri played two more Asian Cup finals. As the tournament expanded from 16 to 24 teams, he grew from idolising Bhutia (he still does) and being his understudy to surpassing him. If Bhutia brought greater awareness about fitness, Chhetri took it a notch or three above and with time, got India teammates to adopt some of them. It was more than a smooth transition from one captain, leader, legend to another.
India will hope that passing the baton would be just as seamless. And they will hope young strikers will be able to fill a Sunil Chhetrisized hole. It will not be easy as over the past two decades and more, Bhutia and Chhetri were the only Indian strikers club coaches consistently relied on. That will not change. What will also not change is the tendency of ISL teams to play Indian strikers as wide midfielders and full backs. Through it all, Vikram Partap Singh, Rahim Ali, Ishan Pandita, Rahul KP will have to sharpen poaching skills and deliver for the national team. It is difficult but Lallianzuala Chhangte has shown it can be done. For some time, and that too playing as a striker, Jeje Lalpekhlua did too.
Like Bhutia, Chhetri can score all kinds of goals in the penalty box. Like him again, Chhetri is good with both feet and woe behold if for aerial duels, you went by his size.
But unlike Bhutia, Chhetri’s last few years was not marred by injury; he scored nine goals in 14 games in 2023. The goals against Malaysia (Merdeka ) and Kuwait (SAFF Championship) being proof that he still belonged.
In fact, he has been remarkably injury-free. Monk-like discipline, focus on fitness, diet and sleep routines have contributed to that. Even now, he is known to be among the top in fitness tests in India’s training camps. It had to end some day and even though Chhetri is known for not looking too far into the future, retirement would have been on his mind. And he couldn’t have chosen a better place than Kolkata.
That is where his club career took off. That is where he met his partner Sonam, daughter of Mohun Bagan legend and India central defender Subrata Bhattacharya. That is where in June 2022, he shone bright in the rain when India cruised past Hong Kong and sealed an Asian Cup finals berth. Now that he has said it, you could most likely fill Salt Lake stadium a couple of times and demand for tickets would still outstrip supply.
It is what India would want for the World Cup qualifier where a first-ever third round berth beckons. A goal that helps India make history would be the perfect finish but sport doesn’t follow a script. And yet, it would be difficult to deny that Chhetri’s got his timing right. Again.