New Delhi, June 16: Talismanic Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri has become the fourth highest international goal scorer among active players worldwide with his 54th strike for the country against Kyrgyzstan.
The strike June 13 in his 94th match has taken him past England striker Wayne Rooney (53 goals in 119 games). Chhetri, who turns 33, August 3, is currently behind Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo (73 in 139 matches), Argentine maestro Lionel Messi (58 in 118 matches) and American Clint Dempsey (56 in 134 matches).
Chhetri’s strike rate however, is better than Ronaldo, Messi, Dempsey and Rooney. He has a goal per match ratio of 0.57 as against 0.525 of Ronaldo, 0.49 (Messi), 0.42 (Dempsey) and 0.45 (Rooney).
Only Brazilian superstar Neymar Junior (0.68), Ali Ashfaq (0.68) of Maldives and Edin Dzeko (0.63) of Bosnia have a better strike rate then Chhetri.
Remarkably, Chhetri is also in the top 30 of the all time goal-scorers’ chart (taking into account both retired and active players) and is certain to be among the top 20 when he decides to call it a day. He would need to score just half a dozen more to reach 60 goals and that should put him in the top 20. Chhetri is expected to continue for at least a couple of years and he has expressed his desire to play in the 2019 Asian Cup if India qualify for the event.
Chhetri had surpassed Bhutia’s record of most number of international goals – 43 – in 2013. PTI
