India's football icon Sunil Chhetri announced on Thursday that he will retire from international football after the FIFA World Cup qualification match against Kuwait on June 6. The national team captain shared his decision in a video posted on his social media accounts. Chhetri has played 145 matches for India, scoring 93 goals in a career spanning 20 years.
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. But the day before, morning of the day, Sukhi sir, 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. 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 in my debut, to conceding late 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 in a social media post.
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You know the feeling that I recollect in the last 19 years is a very nice combination between 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.
Chhetri's journey began in 2002 with Mohun Bagan. His talent soon propelled him abroad, with stints at the USA's Kansas City Wizards (2010) and Portugal's Sporting CP reserves (2012). Back in India, he donned the jerseys of prestigious clubs like East Bengal, Dempo, Mumbai City FC, and currently, Bengaluru FC. It's with Bengaluru that Chhetri truly flourished, lifting trophies like the I-League (2014, 2016), ISL (2019), and Super Cup (2018). He even led them to the AFC Cup final in 2016.