India's recall of 40-year-old Sunil Chhetri highlights deep-lying issues

With national team struggling and no obvious replacements, India turn to old talisman in Asian Cup hunt

When you recall a 40-year-old to the national team almost a year after the player has announced his international retirement, it suggests that not all is as it could be.

India are struggling, failing to win a single game in 2024 and has gone 12 without victory. Qualification for the 2027 Asian Cup starts on March 25 against Bangladesh. Hong Kong and Singapore complete the group, which is far from easy. To make matters worse, only the top team qualifies. India has made three of the last four Asian Cups and are desperate to do so again.

Desperate times call for desperate measures and so Sunil Chhetri, who may feel he has more than done his duty for India, is back.

In June 2024, Chhetri announced that he was calling time on an illustrious national team career after 151 games. “It was not that I was feeling tired,” Chhetri said. “When the instinct came this should be my last game, I thought about it a lot and eventually I came to this decision.”

Courtesy of The Bridge

“Will I be sad after this? Of course … the kid inside me never wants to stop if given a chance to play for his country. It’s time for our country to see the next number nine.”

It turns out that Chhetri, is the next number nine.

A Fine Career

The Hyderabad born forward is a legend in India and Asian football and for good reason. He has scored 94 international goals and with his return, is now back on the active goalscorers list and behind only Lionel Messi, second with 112 and Cristiano Ronaldo way out in front with 135. If you ask any fan elsewhere in Asia to name a player from India then it is a good bet that Sunil Chhetri is the name they come up with.

His longevity is testament not just to his ability but his character. Chhetri has been the ultimate professional and despite being on the wrong side of 40, looks as hungry and lean as he ever did. A leader on and off the pitch, the goalgetter has been a great servant to Indian football. He also came close to moves overseas –having trials or spells in the United States, England and Scotland but it never quite worked out. Things have changed in football and it is not crazy to assume that if Chhetri was starting out now, with Asian players a much more common sight in Europe, then he would have been even more of a pioneer.

That’s in the past but there is a chance to make more history in the future. It is possible with a friendly game against the Maldives on March 19 and then the crucial opening 2027 Asian Cup qualifier with regional rivals Bangladesh six days later that Chhetri will move closer to the century. And if so, then there are more games in Group C of qualification against Hong Kong and Singapore then Chhetri’s tally could well move into three figures, only the second Asian to do so after Ali Daei of Iran and the fourth ever.

Banging them in

It would be a magnificent achievement and is not out of the question. The forward may have hung up his national team boots last year but has been going strong in the Indian Super League. When the call came, Chhetri had played 23 out of 24 games in the regular season and scored 12, firing Bengaluru into the Championship play-off series.

“At this moment, he's the best striker… he's the best Indian striker and I think there is no doubt about this," India coach Manolo Marquez on Saturday. “We need players who play with regularity in a single league. And yes, Sunil is one such player," the Spaniard added.

And that is the problem. Finding one younger striker to step into the considerable shoes of Sunil Chhetri should not be too taxing a task but there it is.

Only one player has scored more with Alaaeddine Ajaraie, with the Moroccan way out in front on 23. There is only one other Indian near the top ten. The problem is, Brison Fernandes has been having an excellent season for Goa but as a winger is not exactly a direct replacement.

As you would expect, Chhetri’s return has provoked something of a debate with another legend, Bhaichung Bhutia, with 84 international appearances and a spell in England with Bury from 1999 to 2002, weighing in. "I think for Sunil (Chhetri) to come back is a good gesture,” Bhutia said. “But my point is, I don't know if it's really going to help Indian football in the long run. Because yes, Manolo Marquez and obviously the federation are in huge pressure because 2024 was a disaster for us without a win. So Asia Cup is a big tournament for us to qualify," Bhutia added. “I feel we will have good results. And I still feel that Manolo Marquez could have gambled with the young other strikers.”

The other strikers have yet, however, to step up.

“The Blue Tigers played with eight different strikers since Chhetri’s retirement – Manvir Singh, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Rahim Ali, Farukh Choudhary, Liston Colaco, Edmund Lalrindika, Irfan Yadwad and Sahal Abdul Samad,” explained Neeladri Bhattacharjee in of The Hindu’s Sportstar.

“Only two of them – Yadwad and Lalrindika – have regularly played as a centre-forward for their respective clubs while Farukh is the only striker to have scored a goal in the post-Chhetri era. Chhangte, whose data suggested he was Chhetri’s most probable successor last season, has looked nowhere close to his former self,” he added.

It’s not hard to feel some sympathy for coach Marquez. The Indian Super League is not alone in Asia in having goalscoring charts in which foreign stickers feature heavily but the lack of locals is a worry. And it all means for now, India will rely on a retired 40-year-old to shoot them to the Asian Cup.