Chhetri, 39, has pioneered Indian football from an era when people just knew his name as an Indian footballer an era where people throng stadiums and fill them to the brim to get a glimpse of him and the Indian football team, no matter how badly they perform sometime.
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This tidal shift in the football fandom of the national team can be credited to one man in particular and that is Sunil Chhetri.
Here are 10 moments in his career that helped shape Indian football:
The first strike at Quetta
Chhetri made his debut against Pakistan in 2005 and struck in his first game against the arch-rivals at the Ayub Stadium in Quetta. From that moment, he never looked back.
The Nehru Cup title win
India won the title for the first time in 10 years after Sunil Chhetri scored four goals in the tournament and provided the much-needed assist to Pradeep’s goal in the final against higher-ranked Syria to lift the cup.
The overseas signings
Hat-trick in the AFC Challenge Cup to get India into Asian Cup
India had not made it to the AFC Asian Cup in the last 21 years when they got an opportunity in the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008. The winner was to go through to the 2011 Asian Cup in Qatar. Not only did India reach the final against teams like Myanmar, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. He scored eight goals, including a hat-trick in the final, to get the team to the title and the Asian Cup after 24 years.
The Bengaluru Blues
After the 2011 Asian Cup, both Chhetri and the Indian team went into oblivion. They both woke up from a deep sleep in the 2013-14 season when Bengaluru FC entered the scene in Indian domestic football. Chhetri signed up with the club and won them the national title- I league in their debut season.
He rekindled his life for the game as the club found ardent supporters in thick and thin and the title of ‘captain, leader, legend’ was bestowed upon India’s football king by them.
The Emotional Appeal in Intercontinental Cup
One moment that truly captured the imagination of people vis-a-vis football and Chhetri was his uploading a video during the 2018 Inter-Continetnal Cup after India’s 5-1 win over Chinese Tapie. He asked the fans to turn up for games in Mumbai after a thin crowd during that game. For the next match and till the final India won, beating Kenya 2-0, the Mumbai Football Arena was packed to the rafters.
The heart-breaking 2019 Asian Cup campaign
India registered their first-ever Asian Cup win after a gap of 32 years when they beat Thailand 4-1 in the 2019 edition of the tournament in UAE. However, they lost in a heart-breaking manner against Bahrain by conceding a penalty in the 91st minute. Had they even drawn that game, they would have made it to the knockout stage for the first time in 32 years, but they failed to do so and Chhetri was devastated.
“Although we did defend well, we defended too much. We should have kept the ball more. Sometimes when you just need a draw, this is what happens,” he had said.
Khel Ratna 2021
In 2021, Chhetri was awarded Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honour in India. Thereby, he became the first footballer to win this prestigious award. This put football on a larger scale on the Indian map.
Winning the Saff Cup with Kuwait and Lebanon participating
The icing on the cake for Chhetri was winning the coveted South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) Cup at his home ground in Bengaluru. The Cup was attended by Kuwait and Lebanon, who were ranked above India in Fifa rankings. India not only beat them (Kuwait in the Semi-Final and Lebanon in the Final) but made a case for them to go to the Asian Games which was not planned earlier. Chhetri top-scored with five goals including a hat-trick against Pakistan.
Aims to end it with a flourish
Though India’s 2023 AFC Asian Cup campaign was very dismal and since then they have not done, well, Chhetri aims to finish his 151-match long and 19-year-old international career with a flourish by making India win against Kuwait and thereby qualifying them for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup and sending them in the third round of Fifa 2026 World Cup qualification race.