Lionel Messi’s mesmerizing runs on the soccer pitch could cheer up an sad Sunil Chhetri, the talismanic India captain mentioned on Saturday, and made it clear that evaluating him with the Argentine virtuoso is a “stupid cocoon”. It’s like residing in.
The 36-year-old Chhetri has greater than as soon as rejected any comparability with Messi, who he has overtaken because the second-highest worldwide goalscorer amongst lively gamers.
Chhetri mentioned, “When I’m sad, I watch Messi’s videos and it makes me happy, so when I meet him, I’ll tell him I’m his fan, give him a nice handshake, and he’ll be happy with it.” about,” Chhetri mentioned. In an AIFF interview to mark his 16-year worldwide profession.
“I would say ‘Hi, I am Sunil Chhetri and I am a big fan’. I will not bother him. If I meet him, I will be happy, if I am not, then I am still good,” he mentioned What if he meets Messi?
Chhetri overtook Messi (72 objectives) together with his second purpose and 74th general in India’s 2-0 win over Bangladesh in a World Cup qualifying spherical match right here on June 7.
“Along with everybody else on this planet, I’m additionally an enormous Messi fan. There’s no comparability. I’m simply completely happy that I acquired an opportunity to attain for my nation and I’m feeling proud.
“(But) I don’t fall into the stupid cocoon of comparing myself to all those great players. There are thousands of players who are better than me and all of them are also Lionel Messi fans. That’s the gap.”
On today 16 years in the past, Chhetri wore India’s jersey for the primary time in a match towards Pakistan beneath the then head coach Sukhwinder Singh in Quetta.
Since then, he has performed 117 matches for India, scoring 74 objectives – the second most for an lively worldwide participant. He is simply three objectives away from the good Pele’s quantity.
“It has been a beautiful and great journey. For the variety of years I’ve performed for the nationwide crew, the variety of instances I’ve needed to characterize the nation, it has been glorious. It’s past a dream.”
When Chhetri got here to the nationwide crew, stalwarts like Bhaichung Bhutia, Renedy Singh and Mahesh Gawli had been current. Now, at 36, he’s the senior most participant and he generally feels lonely amongst “kids”.
“… (appears) solely yesterday, that these two youngsters got here – Sandesh (Jhingan) and Gurpreet (Singh). And now they’re the primary gamers right here, time flies by.
“There are so many youngsters who at the moment are calling him ‘Sandesh Bhai’, ‘Gurpreet Bhai’. The distinction is large now. I’ve nobody even near my age or period.
“But it’s nice to be around kids. They teach me a lot with their enthusiasm and fearlessness. I try to understand what I can from this lot.”
Chhetri nonetheless consults former captain Bhutia, who has a fantastic affect on him.
“Just two days in the past, I used to be in dialog with Bhaichung Da. I used to be telling him how I miss the previous camp, purely as a result of I do not dwell with anybody anymore. I’m in my room.
“I discovered quite a bit from him. The means he approached a recreation, he was relentless. His mindset was bulletproof. He was in it, each recreation. The first problem, the primary deal with was at all times Bhaichung Da.
“The one who fought for the misplaced trigger was at all times Bhaichung Da. And when as a senior you noticed that our captain, the senior-most participant, is working so onerous, it took a toll on us. There is nobody higher than Bhaichung Da.”
Chhetri mentioned that his aggressive spirit largely comes from his mom, a former worldwide footballer from Nepal, who used to play a number of indoor and outside video games with him as a baby.
“I bear in mind at all times eager to beat my mom, however I could not beat her till I used to be 13. And she by no means even needed to lose. I feel the truth that I do not like dropping Yes, an enormous a part of it comes from my mom.
“One day, I used to be complaining that I had nobody to play with, and my mom got here to play with me within the Delhi warmth. The warmth might be working outdoors. During your entire 10-15 days of summer time holidays, I used to play foot tennis with my mom and she or he was wonderful.
.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
