With Sunil Chhetri around, there was always hope

Sunil Chhetri is retiring from international football.

Yes, that’s happening next month and if you are taken aback, you’re not alone. He played for so long and defied odds aplenty that it felt like the “captain, leader, legend” will always be around. But that’s humanly impossible and so the 39-year-old will bring down the curtains on his highly decorated international career on 6 June when India play Kuwait in a FIFA World Cup second round qualifier at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata.

He will retire after a must-win game for Blue Tigers as they look to make history by reaching the third round of FIFA World Cup qualifiers for the first time. The talismanic striker could not have timed his retirement better.

To bow out in front of home fans, at the mecca of Indian football, and with a match that can potentially be history-making, what better can you ask? But the timing of the retirement is not great just because of the magnitude of the occasion but also because his presence in Kolkata will give India hope.

I'd like to say something... pic.twitter.com/xwXbDi95WV

— Sunil Chhetri (@chetrisunil11) May 16, 2024

‘Hope’ that has emanated from that popular No.11 shirt for 19 years and we don’t think there’s any better word in the English dictionary to embody what Chhetri means to the game and Indian football.

In countless matches, on countless occasions, when everything seemed over and there was just despair in the black hole that Indian football is, Chhetri stood up to give the team a new lease of life.

Remember the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup when he banged in three goals past Tajikistan in the final to help India qualify for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup for the first time in 27 years?

Or, the Intercontinental Cup final 10 years later in 2018 when he scored both goals in the final to guide the Blue Tigers to a 2-0 win over Kenya? This was when India were struggling to fill the stadiums but Chhetri soldiered on to help the team see better days like that of the 2023 SAFF Championships when stadiums were full and Indian football captured the imagination of the whole nation.

Even in the 2023 Intercontinental Cup final, it was Chhetri who opened the scoring before India defeated Lebanon 2-0 .

He was also on the scoresheet in India’s last match against Afghanistan where they shockingly lost 1-2 in Guwahati .

That’s just the goals and he has plenty of them. In fact, 94 in 150 matches which is a record for India but Chhetri was also pivotal in pulling India out of the pits in 2015 with his leadership.

In 2015, India hit their worst in FIFA ranking — an ignominious 173rd rank.

Seen as one of the worst phases in national football with top players like Bhaichung Bhutia, Renedy Singh, and Gouramangi Singh long gone, Chhetri’s captaincy and leadership were crucial as India scripted a successful qualifying campaign under coach Stephen Constantine to reach the 2019 Asian Cup.

Once in the tournament, it was Chhetri who scored the first two goals as India scripted a famous 4-1 win over Thailand in their first match.

It’s unbelievable how often he has turned up for India with the goods when needed. That’s why he always gave them hope and “cometh the hour, cometh the man” became the most popular expression to define the man.

But all good things come to an end.

In his retirement announcement video Chhetri said that “the kid inside him” never wants to stop but 19 years is a long time. When you have single-handedly dragged the team for so long, you are bound to get tired, and that’s what happened at the 2023 Asian Cup when a barren run for the Indian legend resulted in the Blue Tigers failing to score a single goal .

Nonetheless in 2005 when Chhetri debuted in Quetta against Pakistan and scored in his very first international game, no one would have thought it would be until 2024 that he would continue to don the Indian shirt.

But he did, not because out of favour but purely because there was never anyone good enough to replace him. There’s probably still no one to replace him and that’s going to be the Indian football team’s biggest challenge in the life after Chhetri but if there’s one thing we need to take as an inspiration from SC11 - keep hope and move on.