Indian Captain Sunil Chhetri Says That There Is No Comparison Between Him And Lionel Messi

Doha: After fans started comparing India’s footballer Sunil Chhetri with Argentine great Lionel Messi, the Indian captain had to step in to draw a line. In a press conference, Sunil Chhetri said that ” People who understand football know that there is no comparison” between him and Messi.

Actually, it was Chhetri’s goals against Bangladesh in the Footbal World Cup 2022 Qualifier that put him ahead of Lionel Messi in terms of International goals. 

“I am not annoyed by the comparison (with Messi). It is just people having an opinion. But if you want to know my take on this, it is this: there can simply be no comparison between, forget about Messi and me, but between me or any other player in that list. There are thousands of players who are better than me and those thousands of players are fans of Messi. People who understand football know that there is no comparison,” Chhetri told reporters in a virtual press conference from Doha.

The 36-year-old striker, who helped India win their first FIFA 2022 World Cup qualifier, is only second on the active international goal scorer list to Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (103). Chhetri has also climbed to 11th place on the men’s all-time international goal scorers list. With 75 goals, he ranks just behind Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis, Japan’s Kunishige Kamamoto, and Kuwait’s Bashar Abdullah.

“But I am proud to have had the opportunity to play more than 100 games for India and score more than 70 goals. My advice to all Indians who see that list (of highest international goalscorers) will be to be happy for five seconds. But that’s it. There is no comparison whatsoever with those players,” Chhetri added.

We had a leader in Bhaichung (Bhutia) who had said that all I can do is be a good example to the others in the team,” Chhetri added.

Why did Chhetri apologise to coach?

Sunil Chhetri had missed an open header in the match against Bagladesh but later on, he compensated for the same by scoring a header in the 79th minute. He was apologetic to coach Igor Stimac for missing one in the first half. 

Addressing the same fact, Chhetri said, “I told him (coach, delete (from your memory) what I did to the Brandon Fernandes cross. Getting that header on target was the minimum I should have done but then I swung my head. So, apologies for the first miss,” Chhetri said. “We are quite fortunate that I can talk about it in a lighter vein now because in international games, you don’t get too many chances.”

India’s Chances at the 2022 Football World Cup in Qatar?

Sunil Chhetri’s team India is already out of the World Cup 2022 contention. But these qualifiers can be India’s window to the 2023 Asian Cup. If India maintain the 3rd position in the group, they will secure a qualifying birth at the 2023 Asian Cup. 

The only coondition for that scenario would be to win the next match against Afghanistan.