Sunil Chhetri returns to football at 40 – a year after his retirement – to stimulate the hopes of qualifying for the Asian Cup in India.
The legend of Indian football Sunil Chhetri will return to the 40 -year -old national team in an unexpected reversal of his decision to hang up on his boots last year.
The former captain, the fourth best male international scorer of all time, played his last match for India in June 2024 in a qualifier of the World Cup.
Chhetri said last year that “instinct” told him that the match against Kuwait should be his last and that he had bowed nearly 59,000 fans in Kolkata.
But Thursday, India’s head coach Manolo Marquez announced the return of India’s busiest player for the March International Window.
India does not qualify for the 2026 World Cup and now targets the Asian Cup in 2027.
“The qualification for the Asian Cup is very crucial for us. Given the importance of the tournament and the coming matches, I discussed with Sunil Chhetri to make a return to strengthen the national team, “said Marquez in a statement from the All India Football Federation.
“He accepted, and we therefore included it in the team.”
India played a friendly match against the Maldives on March 19, in preparation for an Asian cup qualifier against Bangladesh on March 25.
Football has struggled to find its feet among the 1.4 billion people from India, where sport is overshadowed by the country’s long -standing cricket obsession.
The former president of FIFA, Sepp Blatter, described India as a “sleeping giant” of football.
Chhetri is a sports icon in India from Cricket-Mad.
The diminutive striker, who measures 1.7 meters (5 feet 7 inch), made his debut against the ferocious rivals of Pakistan in 2005 and scored the only goal of India.
Chhetri had two brief but unsuccessful spells in Portugal and the United States, but spent most of his career in India.
In 2009, he was offered a contract by London Club Queens Park Rangers, in the second level of England, but he could not obtain a work permit.
