Indian football team's captain and veteran Sunil Chhetri is all set to draw curtains on his international career. The 39-year-old has announced that the second round of the World Cup qualifiers against Kuwait on June 6th, which will take place at the Salt Lake Stadium In Kolkata will be his last.
Chhetri has been one of the best players of the sport in India and has etched his name in the annals of the same. The veteran player has 94 goals under his belt in 150 appearances and currently is ranked 4th in all-time list of international goal-scorers.
Speaking in a video uploaded on X, Chhetri rememberd how he was fond of the Indian jersey the first time he got it and chooses to look at his career as a mix of pressure of duty and joy. He elaborated:
"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."
"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."
"My mom and my wife straightly started crying" - Sunil Chhetri
The Secunderabad-born footballer added that his father had been normal on the news of retirement, but his mother and wife had grown overly emotional. He stated:
"I told my mom, my dad and my wife, my family first, my dad was, my dad was my dad, he was normal, he was relieved, happy, everything, but my mom and my wife straightly started crying and I told them, you always used to bug me that there are too many games, there is too much of pressure when you watch me and now that I’m telling you that, you know, I’m not going to play for my country anymore after this game."
