The Inspirational Story of Sunil Chhetri

In the world of Football, there are so many legends like Ronaldo, Maradona, Pelé, etc. from so many different countries.

But from India we haven't seen a lot of footballers during the 60s and 70s of the 20th century.

But in the 21st century, there's an amazing or I should say Fantastic Footballer is there from India. His name is Sunil Chhetri.

Let's talk about his Inspirational Story, biography and lifestyle.

Sunil Chhetri Born on 3rd of August, 1984 in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. He is an extraordinary Footballer from the Indian Football Team.

Chhetri has now scored 74 goals, two more than Messi, and is only behind Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo (103) in the list of active footballers with the most international goals. Ali Mabkhout is third on the list having scored 73 goals.

He's also known by a name called Captain Fantastic. It is very true, because he's truly a fantastic player and a great captain for the Indian Team.

Talking about his family, his father's name is KB Chhetri, his mother's name is Sushila Chhetri. He also has a sister, her name is Bandana Chhetri. During 2017, Chhetri married Sonam Bhattacharya.

Chhetri's Father was in the Indian Army and he played football for Indian Army. His Mother was also a Footballer from Nepal. So Chhetri might have learned a lot about that sport from his parents.

Because his Father was in the Army, he had a busy study schedule. He learnt from a lot of schools. For higher studies he joined the Ashutosh College, Kolkata.

But for participating in the Asian School Championship, he left his studies. And from here his Football career started.

He started his Football Career with Delhi City Football Club in 2001. After that he joined the Mohun Bagan Club and Scored 8 Goals in 18 matches.

Not just Delhi and Mohun Bagan, he played with a lot of Football Clubs like JCT, East Bengal, Dempo, Chirag United, Bengaluru, etc.

He is now living in Bangalore in Karnataka. His net worth is more than Rs.10 Crore (approximately $1.4 Million). He also has an Audi A6 Car.

Talking about his International Career, he played in 2004 for the first time for the Under 20 Indian Football Team in Asian Games. But here he didn't score any goal.

During June 2005, Sunil Scored his first goal for the senior Indian National Football Team against Pakistan.

His first experience in any international tournament was in 2007, Nehru Cup. During this tournament he scored 4 goals and played an important role for the Indian Football Team. And after 1997, India won the Nehru Cup for the first time since 2007.

It was the biggest turning point in his career. In 2008 he played very well in the SAFF Championship, India went to the Finals in the tournament but unfortunately lost the match. He is both the most-capped player and all-time top goalscorer for his national team.

He won so many awards. In 2011, he got the Arjuna Award, by the Government of India in recognition of his outstanding achievement in sports. In 2019, he got the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.

He was also recognised as the AIFF Player of the year 6 times for the year 2007, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017 & 2018-2019. He was also the SAFF Championship Player of the tournament 2011.

The discourse around Chhetri’s goal scoring feats for India has often been dumbed down to a comparison with Messi’s figures for the national team. Asked whether such a simplistic assessment annoyed him, Chhetri insisted that there can simply be no comparison.

“I am not annoyed by the comparison (with Messi’s scoring stats for Argentina). It is just people having an opinion. But if you want to know my take on this, it is this: there can simply be no comparison between, forget about Messi and me, but between me or any other player in that list. There are thousands of players who are better than me and those thousands of players are fans of Messi. People who understand football know that there is no comparison,” he told reporters in a virtual press conference from Doha.

This literally tells how humble Chettri is and how much he likes Messi. Some of his fans also compare him with Ronaldo.

There's an amazing fact about Chettri is that he's not very tall like Ronaldo, but still he's an amazing Footballer. He is 5 feet and 7 Inches Tall, very similar to Messi.

Chettri is inspirational for anyone who loves Football, he was not from a rich family background. He'd struggled a lot to become a Footballer.

That's all for this article, I hope you've learnt something from this article. Have a Good Day.