All Hail Sunil Chhetri!

His arms aloft Sunil Chhetri stood before those who had come to adore him In that second he had the massed ranks of Indian fans inside the massive Kanteerava Stadium under his spell They did not bounce and writhe in celebration Instead he held them perfectly still caught in a moment of quiet communion between the divine and his congregationThen of course it broke The stands above seemed to melt and to shake a roar of joy and relief and affirmation reverberating around this vast golden bowl On the field Chhetri was flooded by his jubilant teammates He had not only scored the goal but had also created it willed it into being and fashioned it from whole silk And at last he had done what he had set out to do This was Indias ninth SAFF Championship titleSeventeen years and 92 international goals ago the 20yearold Chhetri found himself limping miserably in front of 20000 howling Pakistanis at Ayub National Stadium in Quetta But he kept going anyway It was his India debut and nothing was going to deny him an opportunity for gloryThe breakthrough came in the 65th minute of the goalless match when former captain Climax Lawrence took aim and his volley deflected off defender Tanveer Ahmed Chhetri pounced like a tiger collected the ball and spun to his left to shoot low and hard just past the keeperrsquos outstretched right handThen a goal Delirium Blood pounding in his ears he vaulted the railing and ran to face the everenergetic crowd They stared back hushed and angry This was the surreal starting point of one of the most improbable incredible stories in the annals of Indian sportsIt has been a long journey to privileged stardom for the deceptively slender preternaturally determined 39yearold who has already spent half his life in professional footballBy his own admission he has been blessed with the gene because his father was a part of the Indian Army team and his mother played for Nepal along with her twin sister This makes for an interesting biographical similarity with Sachin Tendulkar who credits his mother for being his first bowler because it is Sushila Chhetri who ignited a competitive fire in her son SunilChhetri at the age of one Pic Kharga ChhetriIndian Football TeamFacebookPerhaps whats even more delightful is how he time and again has expressed his reverence for boxing queen Mary Kom just when you would expect him to name someone like David Beckham or maybe Diego MaradonaBelieve it or not his style of play increasingly features elements identical to Maryrsquos trademark nevergiveup attitude and sheer grit Where he was once all spark plug and no gears now it is watchful cruise control but without concession on any scoring opportunityYou can see it in the goals he scores one after another the astonishing 80yard run foxing seven separate defenders to score against Kyrgyzstan the imperious chip over Kenyarsquos outclassed goalkeeper the edges parries and headers piled up relentlessly to break every Indian recordAlso Read Unraveling mega deals and dilemmas Kylian Mbappe and the Saudi Arabia offerRonaldo Messi and you the records donrsquot lie We all recognise 38yearold Cristiano Ronaldo as the reallife superhero who has pocketed five Ballon DrsquoOr awards for the best player in the world while scoring 123 goals for Portugal Thatrsquos the most of any active player His constant rival Lionel Messi has seven of his own Ballons DrsquoOr as well as 103 goals for Argentina While it is undeniably spectacular Chhetri is ranked third just behind the two modernday greats in international footballThe scale of this achievement is so off the charts that it is almost impossible to compute Ronaldo and Messi play for footballobsessed championshipwinning nations and have spent their entire adult lives cosseted in the elite apex of the game But Chhetri ndash to put it mildly ndash plays for India which is accustomed to dwelling at the very bottom of the global football cellarFew people realise football was firmly entrenched in the subcontinent well before cricket ndash the International Cricket Council ICC raised India to Test status only in 1932 and it was another 20 years before we actually won a match Our Durand Cup is actually the thirdoldest football tournament in the world and Kolkata teams like Mohun Bagan were set up in the 1880s well before ndash for example ndash Ronaldorsquos Juventus 1897 or Messirsquos Barcelona 1899In fact right into the 1960s we used to regularly beat Asian powerhouses that later became World Cup fixtures Japan China and Iran Or the fact that India cruised past Vietnam current FIFA rank 93 and Japan 27 to beat South Korea 38 and take home the coveted Asian Games goldBut then came long decades of doldrums and the familiar catalogue of despair shadowing constant failure as we surrendered to an unhealthy obsession with the bat and ball the black hole sucking up all the attention that could be paid to other sports Yet in the global game we have an outstanding homegrown superstar at the height of his powers and I think it is only now that Chhetri is getting his due But the skipper is too much of a gentleman to complainHis humbleness and willingness to put everything on the line for the club that bears his name and for the national team is something that will go down in historyIf one was to talk about all the spectacular things you do on the pitch he would be here for ages His incredible statistics and numbers are seldom an indicator to define his contribution and importanceWhat we have now is what posterity will keep forever a human superlative an unrivalled talent and a winner for both club Bengaluru FC and the countryQuitting doesnrsquot seem to be on his mind at all It is actually the opposite with Chhetri firmly believing he can lead his fellow countrymen for some more yearsThis firmly shows that fire is still burning in his belly at least when it comes to representing his country So while many believe that he has completed the mighty conquests that surround the beautiful game it seems that he is not finished yet Age is really a number