Sunil Chhetri will hang up his India shirt where he started his footballing career. In a video message of nine minutes 51 seconds posted on Thursday across widely followed social media platforms, Chhetri said India’s World Cup Qualifier against Kuwait at the Salt Lake Stadium on June 6 will be his last for the country.
In an international career spanning over 19 years, 150 matches and 94 goals, Chhetri is a perfect “been there done that” example. Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the only two active players who have scored more than the Padma Shri award recipient.
Calcutta is the city where he first came from New Delhi to play for Mohun Bagan under then coach — now father-in-law — Subrata Bhattacharya. He could not have chosen a better platform to play his last international match. He would play for Bengaluru FC for one more season.
Chettri started his international career when Bhaichung Bhutia was at his peak. But soon he made a name for himself scoring crucial goals for India. His hat-trick against Tajikistan in the AFC Challenge Cup final in 2008 is still fresh in the mind of the football lovers. Even against Afghanistan in Guwahati in March, he was on target. That was his 150th match for India.
He made his international debut against Pakistan way back in 2005. To gauge his longevity, it must be mentioned that the players who were in that squad are either into coaching or doing something else.
"There is one day that I never forget and remember it quite often is the first time I played for my country... man, it was unbelievable," Chhetri said about his international debut.
"But the day before, Sukhi Sir (Sukhwinder Singh), my first national team coach, in the morning he came to me and he's like, 'you're going to start'... I can't tell you how I was feeling man," Chhetri recalled.
“I took my jersey, I sprayed some perfume on it, I have no idea why. So that day, everything that happened once he told me, from breakfast to lunch and to the game and to my first goal on my debut to conceding late in the 80th minute, that day is probably that I will never forget and is one of the best days of my national team journey."
Chhetri said he could sense that he was heading towards the end of his glorious journey with the national team. "You know the feeling that I recollect in the last 19 years is a very nice combination... Duty, pressure and immense joy. I never thought individually, these are the many games that I've played for the country, this is what I've done, good or bad, but now I did it.
"This last one-and-a-half, two months, I did it and 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.
“And the moment I told myself first, that 'yes, this is the game that is going to be my last', is when I started recollecting everything.
"It was so strange, I started thinking about this game, that game, this coach, that coach, that team, that member, that ground, that away match, this good game, that bad game, all my individual performances... everything came, all the flashes came. So when I did decide that this is it, this is going to be my last game,” he said.
“I told my mom, my dad and my wife, my family first, my dad was... he was normal, he was relieved, happy, everything, but my mom and my wife started crying," he said.
Chhetri is now in Bhubaneswar for the preparatory camp for the June 6 match. He arrived on Wednesday.
“Will I be sad after this? Of course. Do I feel sad sometimes because of this? Yes. Do I feel like I will miss the training? That these 20 days of training and I will be gone? Yes.”
Chhetri, who turns 40 in August. said that it was time for the country to find the next striker. He felt the team is currently handicapped as none of the current lot of players play as the main striker for their respective clubs and so he sees a massive hole in the current national team.
India are currently second in Group A of the World Cup Qualifiers with four points, behind leaders Qatar. They need to beat Kuwait on June 6 to advance to Round III.
Later speaking to the-aiff.com, he elaborated: "We got to win at home to give us a great chance of qualifying for the third round. So, for the country’s sake first, yes. And once we do that, it will be good to think back and remember that my last game was an important one. And I could contribute to our nation being in the third round of the World Cup Qualifiers."
On why he chose June 6 as his last and not the away match against Qatar which is five days later, Chhetri said it was an instinct. "We're playing at home, that's in Salt Lake. It will not be the same."
So on June 6, a Chhetri goal and an India win will be a fitting finale to a wonderful and memorable international career. As he said in the video. “For all our sakes, let’s do a good game."
