Indian football icon Sunil Chhetri announces retirement: "I will feel sad sometimes everyday"

Indian football icon Sunil Chhetri has hung up his boots for the Indian national team. The Indian football legend said the FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Kuwait in Kolkata on June 6, bringing the curtains down on a glorious two-decade career. The long-serving national team captain announced his decision via a video he posted on his social media accounts.

“When I did decide that this is going to be my last game, I told my family about it. Dad was normal. He was relieved, happy, everything. It was my wife and mom, strangely. I told her. ‘You always used to bug me that there are too many games, there’s too much of pressure. Now I am telling you that I’m not going to play for my country anymore after this game.’ Even they couldn’t tell me why there were tears. It’s not that I was feeling tired, not that I was feeling this or that. When the instinct came that this should be my last game, I thought about it a lot, eventually I came to this decision.

“Will I be sad after this? Of course! Do I feel sad sometimes everyday because of this? Yes!” Sunil Chhetri added in the video. “Do I feel like I’ll miss the train and there’s just 20 days of training? Yes. It took time because the kid inside me never wants to stop given a chance to play for his country."

“I have practically lived the dream. Nothing comes close to playing for the country. So the kid kept fighting. But the mature inside knew it that this was it. It wasn’t easy,” Sunil Chhetri admitted before adding: “Every training that I do with the national team, I’m just going to enjoy it. I don’t feel that pressure. The game demands pressure. Against Kuwait, we need the three points to qualify for the third round. But in a strange way, I don’t feel the pressure.”

“I’ll say something controversial. I don’t think I know any player has received ad more love, affection and adulation from the fans in our country than me. A lot of times people talk about highest scorer, this or that, but the one thing that I think I’ve really got the best of, and I was really pampered is the love and affection I got. It’s time for our country to see the next Number 9,” Sunil Chhetri added.

Chhetri, who made his debut in 2005, has scored 94 goals for the country. He will leave the scene as India's all-time top scorer and most-capped player. He is also third in the list of goal scorers among active players behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Acknowledging his contribution to the Indian football, he has has been awarded three prestigious national awards: Arjuna Award (2011), Padma Shri (2019) and Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award (2021), the highest sporting honour in India. Notably, Sunil Chhetri is the first footballer to receive this prestigious awrad.