Sunil Chhetri Retires From International Football: The captain of the Indian football team, Sunil Chhetri, bids adieu to his iconic, nearly two-decade-long international career as he announced his retirement earlier today.
Chettri, who is considered the greatest Indian footballer ever by many, will retire following India’s next World Cup qualifying game against Kuwait on June 6 in the country’s most iconic football stadium, the Salt Lake Football Stadium in Kolkata.
The 39-year-old made his debut for the senior national team in 2005 in the same stadium he will play his retirement match in. 19 years later, he is India’s most-capped player with 150 appearances. He also retires with countless other records.
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Chettri has scored 94 international goals for India. Not only does he have the most goals for the national team, but he is third on the list of active footballers with the most international goals behind icons like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, while having a better goals-to-match ratio than both of them. He is also fourth overall in the list of most international goals, period.
Sunil Chhetri Retires From International Football
In a video released on social media, Chettri addresses his career and retirement. In the video, he had this to say about his decision to retire:
“The feeling that I recollect in the last 19 years is a very nice combination between duty pressure and immense joy. I never thought, individually, these are the many games that I have played for the country and this is what I have done good or bad. But now I did it. These last one and a half-two months, I did it. It was very strange. I did it because probably I was going towards the decision that this game, this next game is going to be my last.”
Chettri went on to say that he will miss training and playing for India every day.
“Will I be sad after this? Of course. Do I feel sad sometimes every day because of this? Yes. Do I feel like I’ll miss the training—that these 20 days of training and I’ll all be gone? Yes. It took time because the kid inside me never wants to stop if given a chance to play for his country,” he said.
Chettri’s final game will be crucial for India’s World Cup qualification. It will be the fifth game out of six in Group A of the second-stage Asian qualifiers. The Blue Tigers are currently second in the four-team group with four points. Winning that game will keep India in second place ahead of the final game against unbeaten Qatar. The top two teams will qualify for the next round.
Like every time for the last two decades, Chettri will carry the burden of Indian expectations going into his final international match.
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