Sunil Chhetri: Ageing like fine wine

BENGALURU: 29 games, 21 goals and three assists. Those are Bengaluru FC and India skipper Sunil Chhetri’s statistics this season — one goal ahead of Venezuelan and Spanish strikers Miku and Ferran Corominas, who are tied at 20.

At the ripe old age of 33, Chhetri is in the best phase of his career. He scored six goals including a hat-trick against NEROCA in the Super Cup, leading Bengaluru to their fifth trophy in as many years.

The season doesn’t end for Captain Marvel (as he is fondly called by his fans). Bengaluru are still in the AFC Cup and India is set to face a tough test against South Africa, New Zealand and Chinese Taipei in the Intercontinental Cup in June. Express caught up with Chhetri before he left for the Maldives to play the AFC Cup tie against New Radiant SC. Excerpts…

What changed compared to last season when you had a dry run in the beginning?

Touch wood, I haven’t been injured all season and that has been one of the big factors. I’ve had a season with a lot of goals. I’m enjoying my football and, more so, the way we are playing. As attackers, we are lucky to have a goalkeeper, defence and midfield trying to do everything to get the ball to us to score.

This was your fifth trophy in five years. But was this one special, especially after losing the ISL final?

I was telling some of the staff members on the way back to the hotel after the final, that getting a fifth trophy is simply phenomenal. That defeat in the ISL final (2-3 to Chennaiyin FC) was hard to take because we had been the most consistent side throughout the league. So, I think it was a string of emotions together. Happiness, because this squad has been tremendous all through the season and we had to have a trophy to back that.

I was also relieved because it was a tough tournament – mentally and physically. The conditions weren’t the easiest, no game was a cakewalk right from the start especially when we had already lost a knockout match.

Bengaluru dominated the ISL on debut. Did you expect that?

I wouldn’t say I expected it, but I was confident. We’ve been working very, very hard in training and had been executing plans in games perfectly. We started getting stronger and better in every department on the pitch as the season progressed.

There were rumours of players leaving after the ISL and the Super Cup wasn’t taken seriously by many other clubs. As a leader, what role did you play in motivating the team?

The beauty of BFC is that every season, the chemistry of the squad extends beyond the pitch. Everyone wanted to make this a big season because we knew we were playing some very special football. I didn’t really have to do much, to be honest. We had leaders in every part of the pitch.

With no AFC Cup in sight for next year, how important is this year's AFC Cup? A triumph could boost MA rankings and open up a slot next year.

True, we’re now completely focused on the AFC Cup. I’m not going to make any tall claims but we’ve been within touching distance of the trophy twice in two years and I feel we have the squad this season to go all the way.

Three big teams are going to play in the Intercontinental Cup. What can we expect from this tournament and how important will it be as preparation for the Asian Cup?

I’ve been told the first teams of these countries will be playing the tournament and that’s great news for us. I’ve always spoken about us needing to play better opponents more frequently if we are to get a fair idea of where we stand and where we need to improve. This tournament should let us do that.