ਸੁਨੀਲ ਛੇਤਰੀਸੁਨੀਲ ਛੇਤਰੀ

Sunil Chhetri is an Indian footballer who played as a forward for India for twenty years and finished as the country's all-time leading scorer, with 95 goals in 157 appearances. He captained India from 2012, led the team to the AFC Challenge Cup title in 2008 and four SAFF Championship titles, and spent most of his club career as captain of Bengaluru FC. He retired from international football in June 2024, returned for one final campaign in March 2025, and played his last match for India in October 2025, while continuing to play club football for Bengaluru.

Early life: a football family

Sunil Chhetri was born on 3 August 1984 in Secunderabad, then in Andhra Pradesh and now in Telangana. His father, K. B. Chhetri, was an officer in the Indian Army who played football for the Army team, and his mother, Sushila Chhetri, played for the Nepal women's national team alongside her twin sister. Football was part of daily life at home, and Chhetri began playing in local tournaments while he was still a boy. He spent most of his childhood in Darjeeling, where he studied at Bethany School and lived in the Pashupati Fatak area.

His first club was City Club Delhi, which he joined for the 2001-02 season. He played in the Durand Cup that year, and Mohun Bagan spotted him there and called him to Kolkata for a trial. He signed his first professional contract with Mohun Bagan in 2002, at eighteen.

Club career across India and abroad

Chhetri's start at Mohun Bagan was slow, and he moved to JCT in 2005, where his game opened up. He scored 21 goals in 48 league matches for JCT, including twelve in the 2006-07 season when the club finished second in the league. A season with East Bengal followed, where he scored on his debut, and then Dempo, where he won the I-League title in 2009-10. Around the same time he agreed terms with Queens Park Rangers in England, but the British government refused him a work permit because India sat outside the top seventy of the FIFA rankings.

In March 2010 he joined the Kansas City Wizards in the United States and became the first Indian to play in Major League Soccer, although he never played a league match for the club. Back in India he scored seven goals in seven league games for Chirag United and returned to Mohun Bagan, then spent the 2012-13 season with Sporting CP's reserve side in Portugal, where he made three appearances. In February 2013 he joined Churchill Brothers on loan and scored four goals in eight league matches to help them win the I-League title.

In July 2013 he became the founding captain of the new club Bengaluru FC and led them to the I-League title in their debut season. He moved to Mumbai City in 2015, where he was the most expensive Indian player at the auction and became the first Indian to score a hat-trick in the Indian Super League. He returned to Bengaluru in 2016 and led the club to the AFC Cup final that year. He was named Hero of the League in 2017-18 after scoring fourteen goals, and he captained Bengaluru to the Indian Super League title in 2018-19. He scored his hundredth goal for the club in February 2021, the same month he made his two hundredth appearance, and in December 2024, at forty, he became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in the Indian Super League. As reported in August 2026, he has made 318 appearances and scored 134 goals in all competitions for Bengaluru, both club records. He signed a one-year contract extension in July 2026 to play the 2026-27 season.

How many goals did Sunil Chhetri score for India?

Sunil Chhetri scored 95 goals in 157 appearances for India between 2005 and 2025. He scored on his senior debut, an equaliser against Pakistan in Quetta on 12 June 2005 that salvaged a 1-1 draw, and he was named India captain in 2012. He finished fourth on the all-time list of men's international goalscorers, behind Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Iran's Ali Daei, and he is the second-highest Asian scorer in history, behind Daei alone. The size of the record shows in the gap behind him: the next-highest Indian scorer is I. M. Vijayan with thirty goals, followed by Bhaichung Bhutia with twenty-seven.

The SAFF Championship supplied the most goals, twenty-three, which makes him the tournament's all-time top scorer. In 2011 he scored seven goals in a single edition of the tournament, a record. He scored four hat-tricks for India: against Tajikistan in the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup final, against Vietnam in a 2010 friendly, against Chinese Taipei in the 2018 Intercontinental Cup, and against Pakistan in the 2023 SAFF Championship. Fifty-two of his ninety-five goals came in competitive matches, and the rest in friendlies and invitation tournaments.

The 2008 AFC Challenge Cup and the trophy years

The turning point of Chhetri's international career came at the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup. He played every match and scored four goals, including the only goal of the semi-final against Myanmar and a hat-trick in the 4-1 final win over Tajikistan. The victory qualified India for the 2011 Asian Cup, their first appearance at the tournament since 1984, and Chhetri scored twice there, against Bahrain and South Korea.

The trophies kept coming. India won the Nehru Cup in 2007, 2009 and 2012, and the SAFF Championship in 2011, 2015, 2021 and 2023. In June 2018 he scored eight goals at the Intercontinental Cup in Mumbai, finishing as the tournament's top scorer. The same tournament brought his hundredth cap, against Kenya, and after a poor crowd for the opening match he posted a video asking fans to come to the stadium. The video spread widely, the arena filled for the remaining matches, and he scored twice in the final as India beat Kenya 2-0. In January 2019 his two goals helped India beat Thailand 4-1 at the Asian Cup. In 2023 he scored in the Intercontinental Cup final win over Lebanon and hit a hat-trick against Pakistan at the SAFF Championship, a night that took him to ninety international goals.

Retirement, comeback and farewell

On 16 May 2024 Chhetri announced in a video that the World Cup qualifier against Kuwait at Kolkata's Salt Lake Stadium on 6 June would be his last match for India. The game ended goalless, and he walked off with 151 caps and 94 goals. Nine months later the story changed. On 6 March 2025 the new India head coach, Manolo Marquez, recalled him for the 2027 Asian Cup qualifying campaign. On 19 March 2025, in a friendly against the Maldives in Shillong, he headed in the third goal of a 3-0 win: his 152nd cap and his 95th goal.

He played six more internationals without adding to the tally. His last match for India came on 14 October 2025, a 2-1 defeat to Singapore in Goa that ended India's hopes of qualifying for the 2027 Asian Cup, and he confirmed the following month that his India career was over. The final record stands at 157 appearances and 95 goals. He continues to play club football for Bengaluru FC.

Honours and legacy

Chhetri received the Arjuna Award in 2011, the Padma Shri in 2019 and the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna in 2021, becoming the first footballer to receive India's highest sporting honour. He was named AIFF Player of the Year a record seven times. The Asian Football Confederation named him an Asian Icon on his thirty-fourth birthday in 2018, and in 2022 FIFA released Captain Fantastic, a three-episode documentary about his life and career.

On the field he played mainly as a central striker. At 1.70 metres he gave away height to most centre-backs, but his timing and leap made him dangerous in the air, and his work rate and discipline set a standard for those around him. His care with diet and fitness brought a more professional approach to Indian football, and younger players have spoken of copying his habits.

His legacy is not only in the numbers. In a country where cricket fills the sporting conversation, Chhetri gave football a face and a story, and his 2018 appeal to fans showed how far one player's voice could reach. He married Sonam Bhattacharya, daughter of former India international Subrata Bhattacharya, on 4 December 2017, and their son Dhruv was born in August 2023.