India's football great Sunil Chhetri on Thursday announced his decision to retire from international football after the country's FIFA World Cup qualification match against Kuwait on June 6. The national team captain announced his decision via a video he posted on his social media accounts. The 39-year-old striker made his international debut against Pakistan on 12th June 2005 and scored his first goal for India in the same match. "It's not that I was feeling tired, not that I was feeling this or that," Chhetri said in the video. "When the instinct came that this should be my last game, I thought about it a lot (and) eventually I came to this decision." As of now, Chhetri stands tall with third most international goals (94 in 150 matches) among the currently active players, behind Argentine legend Lionel Messi (106 in 180 matches) at number two and the leader Cristiano Ronaldo (128 in 205 matches), the legend from Portugal. He is also the most capped Indian footballer.
Chhetri's decorated career saw him winning the AIFF Player of the Year award on six occasions, besides receiving the Arjuna Award in 2011 and the Padma Shri in 2019.
Looking back at his 19-year career, Chhetri said: "You know the feeling that I recollect in the last 19 years is a very nice combination between duty, pressure and immense joy. I never thought individually, these are the many games that I've played for the country, this is what I've done, good or bad, but now I did it. "This last one and a half, two months, I did it and it was very strange. I did it because probably I was going towards the decision that this game, this next game is going to be my last. And the moment I told myself first, that yes, this is the game that is going to be my last, is when I started recollecting everything. "It was so strange, I started thinking about this game, that game, this coach, that coach, that team, that member, that ground, that away match, this good game, that bad game, all my individual performances, everything came, all the flashes came. So when I did decide that this is it, this is going to be my last game." On the international stage, Chhetri has been part of the title-winning Indian teams in the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008, the SAFF Championship in 2011 and 2015, the Nehru Cup in 2007, 2009 and 2012, as well as the Intercontinental Cup in 2017 and 2018. Going into Chhetri's last international outing next month, India are currently second in Group A off FIFA World Cup qualifiers with four points, behind leaders Qatar. Kuwait are fourth with 3 points.
He also shared the emotions of his family the moment he told them about his decision. "I told my mom, my dad and my wife, my family first, my dad was...he was normal, he was relieved, happy, everything, but my mom and my wife started crying...they couldn't express to me as to why they burst into tears."
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