Sunil Chhetri is one of the most successful names in our country, when it comes to the rough sport of football. Regarded as the greatest footballers of all time, Sunil started of his professional footballing career in 2002 from Mohun Bagan athletic club in Kolkata. Moving on, he quickly escalated his game to the international levels for his country and helped India significantly to win massive successes at the Nehru Cup, SAFF Championship and AFC Asia Cup. In 2011, he received the Arjuna Award, followed by the Padma Shri in 2019 and the Khel Ratna Award in 2021. Currently, the forward player is captaining not only the Indian national football team, but also the team for Bengaluru in the Indian Super League.
Taking to X(formerly Twitter), eminent footballer, Sunil Chhetri announced a significant news of his life, as he decided to retire and step down from international football. The athlete, who has recorded a mightily successful career in the game for the last nineteen years, remarked that his last match would be the FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Kuwait, which is set to take place on June 6 in Kolkata. The long-serving captain of the Indian team dropped a video message on his social media handle, where he candidly recalled several milestones of his career, and explained his reason for retirement. An excerpt of it can be heard as:
“The feel that I recollect in the last 19 years is a very nice combination of duty, pressure and immense joy. I never thought individually these are the games I've played for the country, this is what I've done good, I've done bad. But, now I did it, this last one-and-a-half two months. It felt very strange. I did it because I was going towards the decision that the next game was going to be my last.”
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Watch the video here.
The most obvious place in which one can find Sunil Chhetri most of his time is undoubtedly the football ground. However, the athlete, too has his personal life, and times when he deems to spend them differently. Speaking along the same lines, Sunil, in an earlier interview with The Financial Express, revealed how an off day for him would mean waking up later than usual and craving for a cup of adrak wali chai. Adding more, he said:
“I like to watch movies, documentaries when I’m at home. I read books. And of course, if my wife and I agreed for a date, we often go out for dinners.”
In his personal life, Sunil Chhetri is happily married to the love of his life, Sonam Bhattacharya. For the unversed, she is the daughter of Sunil’s coach, Subrata Bhattacharya. While their jodi sounds quite unique to many, it was once when the sportsman narrated how he got to meet Sonam in an interesting turn of events. While speaking to the Humans of Bombay, Sunil Chhetri narrated:
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“Her dad was my coach and he used to always mention this guy, ‘Chhetri’ to her. I was 18 and she was 15. She was curious so she stole my number from her dad and texted me saying, ‘Hi! I’m Sonam and I’m a big fan, I want to meet you!’. I had no idea who she was. She was sweet on text so I decided to meet her—when we met I realised that she was a kid! I told her, ‘You’re a kid, go study’ and walked off. But for some reason, we didn’t stop texting.”
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It was in December 2017 that Sunil Chhetri tied the knot with Sonam Bhattacharya in a grand wedding in Kolkata. Few years later, in August 2023, the couple got promoted to parenthood with the birth of their son, Dhruv. Back on March 27, 2024, the doting parents hosted their little one’s rice-eating ceremony or annaprashan, wherein they revealed the face of their son. The little boy looked cute as a button in a blue ethnic avatar.
What do you think about Sunil Chhetri’s retirement announcement?
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