AHMEDABAD: Being Sunil Chhetri is no mean job! There is the fact, even 14 years after he made his debut in a blue shirt, Chhetri is still the one that everyone looks at when the team needs a goal. When a rookie feels awkward on his first day in a national camp, it’s ‘Sunil bhai’ who has his arm around him.
Last year, at the Intercontinental Cup, he took on himself the job of selling the match to the fans, putting up a video asking them to come to the stadium. Fans responded by packing the venue then. And a year later, in the same tournament, with Indian football more fractious than ever before, the captain has issued a call for unity.
A day before India takes on North Korea in their second match of the Intercontinental Cup, Chhetri was asked on the ongoing I-League — Indian Super League row. “I think people are doing their best,” he said. “That’s what I think and, more importantly, that’s what I want to believe. Now I’ve understood that you just have to take care of your own job and trust people to take care of theirs.
Pointing fingers have never ever helped anyone. You have to trust that you, me, the fans, everyone wants Indian football to go up. So we have to back each other. Of course, you have to ask questions, but eventually, you have to trust each other. We all are in this together and we can’t do without each other.”
For many fans, Indian football’s present may look as bleak as its future, but Chhetri is not one of them. “Criticising and losing hope is not the way forward,” he said. “I can’t think of the last time we played Curacao, Thailand, Tajikistan, North Korea and Syria in a row. Five back-to-back games against the B plus teams of Asia! We might lose some, we might win some but for sure, we will be stronger after these games.
“The way, the boys take care of themselves and the way they think about themselves have changed. Sandesh Jhingan is much more aware than any player that we can think of, 10-15 years back. Has ISL helped? Definitely. I told Sandesh that when we played Bahrain, UAE and Thailand — due respect to all these teams — he did not face a Coro (Ferran Corominas) or a Miku or a Lanza (Manuel Lanzarote). But in the league, he faces them. Jerry (Lalrinzuala) or Anas (Edathodika) or Sandesh, they are playing against them or training with them. That’s why they have improved.”
Chhetri did, however, stress upon the importance of making sure that youngsters, especially strikers, got enough games under their belt. “A small thing we can do is we can have reserve matches,” he said. “For example, if Chennaiyin FC plays Bengaluru FC, the right next day, there should be a reserve game with all the players who did not play.”