Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi … Sunil Chhetri: India captain, international football’s third-highest scorer, retires
- Tributes pour in from football elite as India captain Sunil Chhetri calls time on record-breaking career
- Attacker has hit 94 goals in 150 appearances for India in two decades representing country
Tributes poured in from football’s elite as India captain Sunil Chhetri announced on Thursday he would retire from international football, ending a record-breaking career for his country spanning two decades.
The attacker has hit 94 goals in 150 appearances for India, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the list of active men’s international goalscorers.
He is also India’s most-capped player.
In a video message on social media platform X, Chhetri said the 2026 World Cup qualifier against Kuwait in Kolkata on June 6 will be his last international outing.
“It’s not that I was feeling tired, not that I was feeling this or that,” the 39-year-old said. “When the instinct came that this should be my last game, I thought about it a lot and eventually I came to this decision.”