New Delhi, India, May 16, 2024: Indian football icon and captain of the national team, Sunil Chhetri, has announced his decision to retire from international football on June 6.
In a video posted on X, he said that India’s World Cup qualification match against Kuwait would be his last game.
“One last game ... for all our sakes ... let's win the game and we can depart happily,” he said in the video.
Chhetri, 39, has played for the country for 19 years, having scored his first goal during his debut in 2005.
He is India’s most prolific scorer with 94 international goals. It makes him the third-highest active international goal scorer after Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
“It was not that I was feeling tired,” Chhetri, the face of Indian football for nearly a decade and a half, 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.
“Will I be sad after this? Of course… the kid inside me never wants to stop if given a chance to play for his country.
“It’s time for our country to see the next number nine,” Chhetri added.
Source: BBC