Indian football team captain Sunil Chhetri, has surpassed Lionel Messi to become the second-highest active international goal-scorer with 74 goals.
Sunil Chhetri scored a brace, in the 79th and 92nd minutes, against Bangladesh in Doha during India’s World Cup qualifier match. With two goals in the match, Chhetri has now scored a total of 74 international goals, two more than Messi, and is only behind Cristiano Ronaldo who has 103 strikes in the list of active footballers with the most international goals. Ali Mabkhout of UAE is third on the list with 73 goals after scoring against Malaysia last week. On the other hand, Messi scored his 72nd international goal against Chile recently.
Chhetri shared a video on Indian Football Team Twitter handle where he said,
“You know, I don’t (on being asked is he counting on a number of goals). Once I’m done in ten years we will talk about all my goals.”
Chhetri also moved up in the men’s all-time list of international goalscorers. Presently he is ranked 11th, standing behind Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis, Japan’s Kunishige Kamamoto, and Kuwait’s Bashar Abdullah, who all have 75 goals.
Delighted with Chhetri’s record, All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Praful Patel tweeted,
“Our @IndianFootball skipper Sunil Chhetri adds another feather to his illustrious cap as he overtook Lionel Messi to become the second-highest active international goalscorer with 74 goals. A big congratulations to Captain Fantastic & wishing him many more accolades in the future.”
With Sunil Chhetri’s record, India registered their first win in this season’s World Cup qualifying campaign. It was also India’s first victory in World Cup qualifiers away from home in 20 years. With the win, India rose to the third spot in Group E with six points from seven games.
