Top five iconic Sunil Chhetri moments in international football

One of the top scorers in international football

Sunil Chhetri has confirmed that he will play his final match for the Indian Football Team against Kuwait next month. This means the 39-year-old will don the Blue Tigers’ jersey for the final time during the key 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier in Kolkata. Chhetri, who is considered one of India’s best players of all time, has had a highly memorable career for the Blue Tigers.

He made his international debut in 2005 against Pakistan, opening his account in the game. Chhetri has since remained a pivotal part of the Indian national team for the last 19 years, going strong through all highs and lows. He’s broken records, scored clutch goals and represented his country with pride at the highest level. Here, we look at the five best moments from Chhetri’s brilliant international career.

5. Becoming the leading goal-scorer for India

Sunil Chhetri has set an incredible challenge for any future Indian player when it comes to goal tally for India. He is the all-time leading goal-scorer for the Blue Tigers and by a huge margin, having scored 94 times in 150 appearances. He was able to surpass the previous record set by I.M. Vijayan, who had scored 32 goals for India almost effortlessly. Chhetri had scored his 33rd goal for India way back in 2012.

The record-setting goal came in the opening match of the 2012 Nehru Cup, the final edition of this memorable tournament. Chhetri scored a terrific goal in the dying minutes of the first half at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi, to take the record. Since then, he has done an impressive job at significantly extending his lead over all the other leading goal-scorers for India. Needless to say, it would take a lot of scoring to match up to his standards!

4. First (and only) Indian footballer to win the Khel Ratna award

Chhetri has been blessed with many individual awards across his two-decade-long career. This includes a number of Golden Boots and Player of the Match prizes, but the one that will stay closest to his heart is the Khel Ratna Award. In 2021, the 39-year-old became one of the very few sportspersons to be chosen for the prestigious award by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports.

The Khel Ratna is given to sportspersons for ‘spectacular and most outstanding performance in a field of sports over a period of four years’. Chhetri helped India to many memorable accolades from 2017-2021 – helping the team qualify for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup and scoring many memorable goals. Chhetri, until now, remains the only footballer to have received the Khel Ratna award.

3. Highest-capped India international player

Chhetri has set many feats for India in his 19-year-long career, but there are some that are probably just a bit more special to him. A rather impressive one was becoming the player to have made more appearances for India than anyone else. Chhetri became the highest-capped international player for the Blue Tigers back in 2018. He surpassed the previous record that was set by Bhaichung Bhutia, who had made 107 appearances for the Blue Tigers during his memorable career.

However, the Bengaluru FC captain managed to surpass him and made his 108th appearance for India in the opening game of the 2018 King’s Cup against Thailand – a game India won 1-0. Chhetri has since gone on to stretch on this lead brilliantly, having made 150 appearances for India and is poised to end his storied career on 151.

2. Surpassing Lionel Messi in international goal tally

Chhetri has 94 goals in his international career and that is more than what many legendary footballers have managed in their careers. In fact, over the last few years, Chhetri has surpassed many iconic European and South American footballers with his brilliant goal-scoring consistency in national colours. In 2021, however, he made the headlines for something truly impressive on the international stage. Chhetri took his goal tally to 74 goals for India after scoring a brace in the Blue Tigers’ 2-0 win over Bangladesh in a 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier held in Doha.

With the brace, he had managed to momentarily surpass the international goal tally of Lionel Messi – who was on 72 goals back then. Hence, even if for a short time span, Chhetri was actually the second-highest active goal-scorer in international football. Messi managed to surpass the Indian legend later, but the fact that Chhetri even managed to compete and surpass the feat of the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner is something he and Indian football can be proud of.

1. Being the fourth-highest goal-scorer of all time

Over his international career, Sunil Chhetri has worked hard to script himself in the annals of football. Well, the 39-year-old can be satisfied to know that he’ll always have a special place in the international football record books. At this moment, Chhetri is the fourth-highest goal-scorer in international footballing history. Only three players, including two current ones (Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi), have scored more goals than him on the international stage.

Chhetri has 94 goals currently, something which only the abovementioned two and Iran legend Ali Daei have managed to outscore. The Bengaluru FC captain has more goals than legends like Pele, Diego Maradona, Ferenc Puskas, and Ronaldo Nazario in his career. Chhetri will not be able to surpass Messi’s 106 goals or Daei’s 108 goals before retirement, but he’ll definitely look to add more goals to his tally and at least finish his career on 95 goals or higher by scoring against Kuwait.

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Telegram.