Do we like Sunil Chhetri?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record on harm and a good run of decent acts, held back from higher because we found nothing from him on LGBTQ+ rights either way.
Sunil Chhetri is the face of Indian football: born in 1984, first pro contract with Mohun Bagan in 2002, and a debut goal against Pakistan in 2005. He ended up India's all-time top men's scorer and the fourth-highest men's international goalscorer ever.
The farewell in June 2024 was something else. Almost 59,000 fans packed a Kolkata stadium for a 0-0 draw with Kuwait, and he was left emotional after his lap of honour. Asked how he wanted to be remembered, he said he hoped it would be as a guy who tried his best. Then in March 2025 coach Manolo Marquez brought him back out of retirement at 40.
His overseas stints were rough going. He had two brief, unsuccessful spells in Portugal and the US, and Queens Park Rangers offered him a contract in 2009 that fell over because he couldn't get a work permit. He stayed and became the national team's anchor.
The only real stoush recently is a harmless one. In December 2025 fans grumbled that he turned up to meet Lionel Messi at Wankhede Stadium in a promotional Messi T-shirt, which some said made the captain look like a fan. The article carries no comment from him, and the fan complaint was aimed at whoever planned it.
The good stuff is the small stuff. At a 2017 press event with one chair going, he reportedly handed it to a senior journalist and sat on a concrete block. He also handed his X account to frontline workers in 2021 and condemned the treatment of detained wrestlers, saying it wasn't the way to treat anyone.
He's also self-aware. In 2024 he said he realises he lives an unbelievably privileged life, especially in his country. Add the honours (Arjuna 2011, Padma Shri 2019, and in 2021 the first footballer given the Khel Ratna) and it's a career built on longevity and grit rather than ego.