Sunil Chhetri comes out of retirement: India captain to play in opposition to Maldives, Bangladesh in March
India’s report goalscorer and former captain Sunil Chhetri got here out of retirement for its third spherical of qualifiers of the AFC Asian Cup 2027, in opposition to Bangladesh on March 25.
Chhetri, 40, had introduced his retirement from worldwide soccer in June final 12 months, after a goalless draw with Kuwait within the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifiers.
With 94 objectives, he’s the fourth-highest goalscorer in males’s soccer, under Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Ali Daei.
Nevertheless, he has continued enjoying for Bengaluru FC within the Indian Tremendous League, India’s prime division, scoring 12 objectives to develop into its highest Indian goalscorer this season.
He has performed 23 matches for the Blues, beginning 17 of them and has contributed to 14 strikes, together with two assists.
In a current interview, former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia had lamented the shortage of strikers, lauding Sunil Chhetri.
“There have been some nice moments with some Indian strikers and attacking midfielders, however consistency just isn’t there. So, we’ve not been in a position to say {that a} explicit participant goes to take Indian soccer ahead (after Chhetri),” Bhutia mentioned.
“The very best Indian scorer this 12 months can be a 40-year-old man, Sunil Chhetri. So, sure, there’s a giant hole however hopefully, in 2025, we’d be capable of see) that.”
Chhetri, who’s second within the Golden Boot race, helped Bengaluru return to the playoffs after it completed third from backside final season.
After hanging up his boots from worldwide responsibility, Chhetri had insisted, “The retirement choice was not due to bodily facet, I’m nonetheless match, operating, chasing, defending, the onerous work just isn’t tough, the reason being to do with psychological facet.”
India is drawn with Bangladesh, Hong Kong (China) and Singapore in its qualifying group and opens its marketing campaign later this month, on the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong.
On the final version of the Asian Cup, India had a forgettable marketing campaign, getting knocked out within the group phases with losses in all is video games.
Again within the crew, hoping for a hat-trick of Asian Cup appaearances, solely time will inform whether or not coach Manolo Marquez makes use of him as the standard No. 9 or as an influence substitute.
