Sunil Chhetri returns to soccer at 40 – a yr after retiring – to spice up India’s Asia Cup qualification hopes.
Indian soccer legend Sunil Chhetri will return to the nationwide staff aged 40 in an surprising reversal of his determination to hold up his boots final yr.
The previous captain, the fourth-highest males’s worldwide goalscorer of all time, played his last match for India in June 2024 in a World Cup qualifier.
Chhetri stated final yr that “intuition” instructed him the match towards Kuwait must be his final and he bowed out in entrance of almost 59,000 followers in Kolkata.
However on Thursday, India head coach Manolo Marquez introduced the return of India’s most-capped participant for the March worldwide window.
India are out of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup and are actually focusing on the Asian Cup in 2027.
“The qualification for the Asian Cup may be very essential for us. Given the significance of the match and the matches forward, I mentioned with Sunil Chhetri about making a comeback to strengthen the nationwide staff,” Marquez stated in an announcement from the All India Soccer Federation.
“He agreed, and so we’ve got included him within the squad.”
India play a pleasant towards Maldives on March 19, in preparation for an Asian Cup qualifier towards Bangladesh on March 25.
Soccer has struggled to seek out its toes among the many 1.4 billion individuals of India, the place the game is dwarfed by the nation’s longstanding cricket obsession.
Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter as soon as known as India a “sleeping large” of soccer.
Chhetri is a sporting icon in cricket-mad India.
The diminutive striker, who’s 1.7 metres (5ft 7in) tall, made his debut towards fierce rivals Pakistan in 2005 and scored India’s solely aim.
Chhetri had two temporary however unsuccessful spells in Portugal and the USA however has spent most of his profession in India.
In 2009 he was supplied a contract by London membership Queens Park Rangers, in England’s second tier, however he couldn’t get a piece allow.
