Sunil Chhetri retirement: Sunil Chhetri announced his retirement by sharing an emotional video, saying he will play his last match against Kuwait on June 6.

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Announcing his decision to retire, the 39-year-old Chhetri said, “The match against Kuwait is the last match.”

Chhetri made his 150th appearance for India in March and on the occasion scored a goal against Afghanistan in Guwahati. However, India lost that game 1–2.

Chhetri, who made his debut in 2005, has scored 94 goals for the country. He will retire as India’s all-time top scorer and most capped player. He is third on the list of goalscorers among active players behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

“I will never forget that day,” he said. I remember when I played for the country for the first time. It was incredible. One morning my first coach of the Indian team Sukhi Sir (Sukhwinder Singh) came to me and said you are playing. I can’t explain how it felt.” He said, “I took my jersey, sprayed perfume on it. Don’t know why. He told me everything from breakfast to lunch that day, my first goal and conceding the goal in the 80th minute, I will never forget that day and it was one of the best days of my journey with the national team.

Regarding the future of Indian football, he said that now the country has to choose the next player for the number nine jersey. He believes that the team currently lacks a striker who plays as the main striker for his club. Chhetri said it was only recently that he realized it was time to end the tour. He said, “Over the past 19 years I have felt duty, pressure and joy. I never thought personally. For the last one and a half months, I have been thinking that the time has come. As soon as this thought came, all the memories of the past started running through my mind.

“I told myself this would be my last match,” he said. It seemed very strange. Every match, every coach, every team, every field, every teammate, good and bad performances, all my personal performances, everything started running through my mind,” I told my parents and wife. My father was normal, relieved. , was happy. But my mother and wife started crying,” he said, “They couldn’t tell me why they were crying.” I didn’t feel tired or anything, I just heard a voice inside that this should be my last match and I thought about it a lot.

Chhetri was the architect of India’s title wins in the Nehru Cup (2007, 2009, 2012), South Asian Football Federation (SAF) Championship (2011, 2015, 2021). He was also instrumental in winning the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup, which gave India the opportunity to play in the AFC Asian Cup (2011) for the first time in 27 years.

Chhetri, who made his club football debut for Mohun Bagan in 2002, played for Major League Soccer team Kansas City Wizards in the US in 2010 and in the reserve team of Portuguese football team Sporting CP in 2012. Seven-time AIFF Player of the Year Chhetri played for East Bengal, Dempo, Indian Super League teams Mumbai City FC and Bengaluru FC. He won I-League, ISL, Super Cup titles with Bengaluru FC.

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