As India’s goal-scoring phenom Sunil Chhetri retires, the question is who will be the next No.9?

“It’s time our country got to see its next No. 9.”

For years now, the Indian national football team has hoped that the next iteration of the striker who could lead the country, would somehow manifest himself and provide an answer to what life could look like after Sunil Chhetri.
Now that the day of reckoning is June 6, even Chhetri himself couldn’t avoid the topic in his retirement video. The ever-gnawing, but ever-sidelined worry of ‘who next after Chhetri’.

That the country has had to rely on the 39-year-old is an understatement. It is how much it has relied on Chhetri that paints a picture of what lies ahead. Look across some of India’s most important wins and draws over the last 19 years and the picture of Chhetri’s deep-rooted involvement in the goalscoring of the national team, starts to emerge. India has qualified for the AFC Asian Cup five times in their history. Three out of those five times have been with him at the centre of it all.

Qualification for the 2011 Asian Cup was achieved when they won the 2008 AFC Challengers Cup. It was a Chhetri hat-trick in the final against Tajikistan that took the country to their first Asian Cup since the 1980s. Then at the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, Chhetri would score two goals as India finished with no points. There would be no repeat in 2014 as India crashed out tamely against the UAE on a 5-2 aggregate over two legs in the second round itself – no goals from Chhetri equalled not even reaching the third round of the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers.

The country then qualified back-to-back in 2019 and 2023 for the Asian Cup, once again on the back of Chhetri’s consistent goalscoring at the national level. For the 2019 Asian Cup, Chhetri scored eight goals in order for India to reach the continental tournament. Curiously, Jeje Lalpekhlua, the Manipuri striker many believed to be the possible successor to Chhetri, scored seven goals in the same time and had it not been for a slew of injuries, could have possibly taken over this unclaimed mantle.

Age has definitely caught up to Chhetri over the past few seasons. It was particularly visible during India’s attempt to reach the 2023 AFC Asian Cup. But somehow, he continued dusting off the classics, this time scoring seven goals as India managed to qualify for the biggest continental tournament on offer for the second time in a row.

Sunil Chhetri leads the Indian football team at a training session ahead of the World Cup qualifier versus Qatar. (PHOTO: AIFF)

In an era of slow, slow gains, these fifteen goals over two qualification campaigns are the only markers of ‘improvement’ that can be levelled on the national team. Take these goals away and India are just as average as they used to be. There were the SAFF Cup and Nehru Cup victories over the years as well – with many goals coming from the boots, head, and envisioned in Chhetri’s mind. But India’s recent consistency in reaching the Asian Cup remains Chhetri’s greatest achievement. Take away almost a third of India’s goals away from 2005 and suddenly ‘how much has football progressed in the country’ becomes a far gloomier thought.

And that has to be the national team’s next great worry. The man, whose goals have been making it seem like there have been small, gains for football in this country, is now walking away from the game. Replacing him will be an act of painful trials and many errors.

“Already we are a little bit handicapped because many of the national team boys don’t play as No 9’s for their clubs. At least now, when I’m not going to be there, I’m pretty sure so many of them will step up. They’ll need time,” hoped Chhetri in his retirement video.

It has been 19 years since he made his debut in 2005 against Pakistan. At the time, he would play for the national team with Bhaichung Bhutia. When in 2011, Bhutia called time on his injury-laden final years for Indian football, the reins were firmly handed over to his strike partner. But since that time, Chhetri has been the sole custodian of the Indian striking department and has had little to no challengers for that spot. Part of it is his ability to be a few rungs above in quality to the next best players that the country has been able to produce. But most of it is down to him being the consummate professional footballer – one can even say the first truly professional footballer in the country.

In the end, his longevity – 19 years, 150 national team appearances and 94 goals in those minutes played – are an entire generation of football that has come and gone. But the oft asked question of who after Chhetri continues and at the state of how things are today, will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

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