page_title: Sunil Chhetri
section_title: 2017–present
hierarchical_section_title: Sunil Chhetri / International career / 2017–present
caption_attribution_description: English: Sunil Chhetri at a melee infront of Thailand goalpost during Group match of 2019 AFC Asian Cup
context_page_description: Sunil Chhetri is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a striker or winger and captains both the Indian Super League side Bengaluru and the Indian national team. Popularly known as Captain Fantastic, having scored the second highest number of goals in international matches among active male players after Cristiano Ronaldo, he is both the most-capped player and all-time top goalscorer for the Indian national team, with 72 goals in 115 appearances. He is the current captain of the national team. Sunil Chhetri was named an 'Asian Icon' by AFC on his 34th birthday.
  Chhetri began his professional career at Mohun Bagan in 2002. He then moved to JCT where he scored 21 goals in 48 games. He signed for the Kansas City Wizards of Major League Soccer in 2010, becoming the third player from the subcontinent of note to go abroad. However, that stint in the United States did not last long and soon he was back in India's I-League where he played for Chirag United and Mohun Bagan before going back abroad. This time he was signed by Sporting Clube de Portugal of the Primeira Liga where he played for the club's reserve side.
context_section_description: On 11 October 2017, Chhetri scored and assisted in a 4–1 home win against Macau in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers, with this win they qualified for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup after missing out in 2015. Chhetri captained India to a 13 match unbeaten run before losing the final match to Kyrgyzstan. Nonetheless, not only did India qualify for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup but also managed to top their group. He was among four renowned Asian players including Ali Daei, Sun Jihai and Phil Younghusband to be chosen for the seeds for the upcoming Asian cup.
  In June 2018, Chhetri scored a hat-trick in a 5–0 win over Chinese Taipei in their first match of 2018 Intercontinental Cup. However, after this match, Chhetri was disappointed with the poor turnout at the stadium and he uploaded a video on Twitter requesting people to come to Mumbai Football Arena to support the Indian team. His video went viral and garnered widespread support from fans, celebrities and legendary cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli. The stadium was packed with exuberant crowd for the rest of the matches. In the second match of the tournament, which was also Chhetri's 100th international appearance for India and also scored two goals including a goal from penalty spot in a 3–0 victory over Kenya. Chhetri scored a goal in the next match against New Zealand, but the match ended 2–1 loss for India though India qualified for the final. On 10 June, Chhetri scored twice again in a 2–0 win over Kenya in the final to win the Intercontinental Cup title and also equalled Argentina's Lionel Messi's tally of 64 international goals, making him the joint-second active international goalscorer at that time behind Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo who had 81 goals. He finished as the top scorer of the tournament with eight goals.
caption: Chhetri in a melee against Thailand at 2019 AFC Asian Cup group match.
exif: {}