Sunil Chhetri | The Greatest Indian Footballer of All Time

Sunil Chhetri is an Indian Professional Football player who plays for Indian National Team, he also plays for Bengaluru FC in Indian Super League. Sunil Chettri also captains the Indian National team and Bengaluru FC. He has scored the most number of goals for India.

Sunil Chhetri was born on 3rd August 1984 in Secunderabad, Hyderabad. He was born to KB Chettri and Sushila Chettri. Sunil also has a sibling, Bandana Chettri. His father is a retired officer from the EME Corps of the Indian Army. Sunil’s mother used to play in the Nepal National Team along with her sisters. Sunil’s father had a transferable job so they got relocated to Delhi, Darjeeling, and Kolkata.

Sunil Chhetri did his schooling at Bahai School, Sikkim. Later he completed his education at Army Public School, Dhaula Kuan. Later, He did his graduation from Ashutosh College, Kolkata.

In 2017, he married Sonam Bhattacharya, also the daughter of form Indian football player and Mohun Bagan player Subrata Bhattacharya.

Career

Sunil Chhetri started playing professionally for Mohun Bagan in 2002. After Mohun Bagan, he joined JCT. In JCT he played 48 games and 21 goals. Later, In 2010 he was selected by Kansas City Wizards for Major League Soccer (MLS). he is the only third player from the subcontinent to go foreign. But unfortunately, he could not cement his position in Major League Soccer (MLS).

He came back to India and then contributed to Mohun Bagan and Chirag United in I-League. After this, he was again called abroad, he played for Sporting Club Portugal of Primeira Liga where he is part of the club’s reserve side. Sunil Chhetri is the only Indian footballer who has played in three different continents which are North America, Asia and Europe. In the Indian Super League, he played for many big teams like Mumbai City, and Bengaluru FC. With Mumbai City FC, Sunil Chhetri became the first Indian player to score an ISL hat-trick and remained their top scorer for the 2015 season with seven goals to his name.

International Career

He got called up by form Indian national team in 2005. Sunil won many tournaments with India Team. He helped India to win the 2008 AFC Asian Challenge Cup. India, For the first time, qualifies for the first time in 27 years. Chettri has scored the most number of hat-tricks. he holds a record for the most number of hat-tricks by an Indian Footballer. He has scored against teams like Vietnam, Chinese Taipai and Tajikstan.

Recently in June 2022, Chhetri helped India to qualify for AFC Championship. He managed to score in all the three important games taking his home country to the Asian Cup. India won against Hong Kong, Afghanistan and Cambodia with 4-0, 2-1, 2-0 respectively. Chhetri, however scored 2 of the 2 goals against Cambodia, and 1 each against Hong Kong and Afghanistan.

Achievements and Awards

Sunil is no doubt one of the Greatest Indian football players of all time. He has been very successful and which earned many awards both collectively and individually.  

He has won 4 I-league titles with Dempo, Churchill Brothers and Bengaluru FC. 2 Federations cup tiles and 1 Super Cup title with Bengaluru FC. Sunil Chhetri has won the AIFF Player of the year award a record six times. The AIFF award started in 1992 and since then he has won the award most of the time. He also received Arjuna Award in 2011 and Padma Shri in 2019. The Indian President, Kovind awarded Khel Ratna to Sunil Chettri in 2021. 

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