Sunil Chhetri is an Indian professional footballer who represented the India national football team as a forward between 2005 to 2024. He is the country's all-time top goal scorer and most-capped player.[1][2][3] He has scored 94 goals in 151[a] official international appearances since his debut on 12 June 2005 against Pakistan.[b][12][13][14]
On 9 December 2011, Chhetri netted twice in a match (also known as a brace) in India's 3–1 semi-final win over the Maldives in the 2011 SAFF Championship to take his tally to 31,[15] thus becoming his country's all-time leading goalscorer surpassing the 29 set by I. M. Vijayan.[1][16] With his 94 international goals, he is currently the third-highest international goalscorer among active players, behind only Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Lionel Messi of Argentina. He is also the highest active goalscorer from Asia. On 21 June 2023, Chhetri scored a hat-trick for India in a 4–0 win over the Pakistan to take his tally to 90 international goals, thus becoming the second-highest international goalscorer from Asia of all time.[17] His tally of 94 puts him the fourth-highest goalscorer in the history of international football.[18]
Chhetri scored his first ever international goal during his first ever international appearance on 12 June 2005 against Pakistan.[14] Chhetri's first international tournament for India was the 2007 Nehru Cup where he scored four goals in total: two against Cambodia, one against Syria, and one against Kyrgyzstan, which helped India to win their first Nehru Cup title.[19][20] Chhetri's 50th goal came during his 88th match in a 3–2 victory against the Maldives in the 2015 SAFF Championship semi-final on 31 December 2015.[21] He is the only Indian footballer to have scored 50 or more international goals. Between all of his 94 goals: 23 came in SAFF Championship matches, 18 came in friendlies, 13 came in Intercontinental Cup, 10 in FIFA World Cup qualifiers, 9 in the Nehru Cup, 8 in AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, 4 in AFC Asian Cup finals, 1 each in the King's Cup and the Merdeka Tournament, and the rest have come in the AFC Challenge Cup finals and its qualifiers.[12] Chhetri has scored four international hat-tricks, the most by any Indian and has scored braces on sixteen occasions.[1][12] He has scored nine times against Nepal, the most against a team. He has also scored eleven international goals at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, his most at a single ground. He has scored 16 out of his 94 goals from penalty kicks.
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