India’s football icon Sunil Chhetri has announced his International retirement and he will play his last game for the national team against Kuwait. Chhetri had a glorious career for the Blue Tigers, scoring 94 goals in 150 International caps.
The veteran is the fourth highest goal-scorer in the history of International football after Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Al Daei.
“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, 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.
Sunil Chhetri played his first international match against Pakistan in 2005 and scored his maiden international goal on his senior debut and ticked the right boxes in his career of almost two decades.
“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 will play his swansong at the Salt Lake Stadium on June 6 and will want to go on a high.
