"I played it because I enjoyed it": Sunil Chhetri on choosing football as career
Dec 08, 2024
New Delhi [India], December 8 : Former Indian football national team captain Sunil Chhetri opened up and said that he has more love for football than cricket although he has played cricket more than football during his childhood.
Earlier in 2024, Chhetri announced his retirement from the Indian National Team. His last game for the country was against Kuwait in the FIFA World Cup Qualifier match at the iconic Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on June 6.
Further, the 40-year-old went on to say that Delhi is his childhood and Bengaluru is his home.
"I love football more. I'm not sure whether I was that good in cricket. I played it because I enjoyed it. There is some burning sensation which happens when you play a specific sport. For me, that was always football. I used to play cricket and enjoyed it a lot during my childhood. At that time, at that level, I was good at it. But then, football was always first," Sunil Chhetri said in an exclusive interview with ANI.
"Bangalore is home. It's been 12 years now I'm in Bangalore. But Delhi is where my parents and my childhood are. Delhi is where I have done my schooling and it is a place where all the hard work and the difficult time of venturing out, thinking what I'm going to do in my life happened. So, yeah, Delhi is where I was to travel in DTC and Blue Line. Delhi is something which is very dear to me. I never dreamt that I was going to be a professional player. I never had it in my mind because I didn't know how to get there," Chhetri added.
Sunil Chhetri kicked off his professional football journey at Mohun Bagan in 2002. Chhetri helped India win the 2007, 2009, and 2012 Nehru Cup, as well as the 2011, 2015, 2021 and 2023 SAFF Championship. He also led India to victory in the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup, which helped India qualify for its first AFC Asian Cup in 27 years.
Chhetri received the Arjuna Award in 2011, and the Padma Shri in 2019. In 2021, he became the first footballer to get the Khel Ratna Award, India's highest sporting honour.
In a career that spanned over 19 years, the Arjuna Award winner has 94 goals in 150 matches on the international stage. Interestingly, Indian football talisman Sunil Chhetri is fourth overall in the all-time international goal scorers' list. Chhetri played a major role in India's footballing fortunes in the last decade, earning legendary status in the nation's sporting history.
