\'No reason to retire\,\' says Indian football skipper Sunil Chhetri



‘No reason to retire,’ says Indian football skipper Sunil Chhetri

Indian Football Team

, AFP

Indian football skipper Sunil Chhetri who gave a splendid performance at AFC Asian Cup 2019 has stated that he won’t be retiring soon. “No reason to (retire). One day there will be a No. 10 who will be better than me. Till then, I think I can contribute,” he said.

With 107 appearances, Chhetri equalled his mentor Bhutia, who had played for India for the same number of matches. He even crossed Lionel Messi to become the second highest active footballer.

However, after the 0-1 loss against Bahrain, Chhetri said he hadn’t slept after the game. “And I usually sleep a lot. After the win against Thailand, I was fairly confident we would qualify, so to absorb this is particularly difficult. Gutted,” he said.

Chhetri also said that it was the players who were to be blamed for the way India lost. “Mentally, we killed it ourselves. Physically, we were not tired. Someone like Hali (Halicharan Narzary) could have run 180 minute more. We just didn’t perform. As a senior player, I should have done something, maybe yelled at the boys to not just lump the ball because at this level you simply can’t do that.”

When asked if why the scenario was the same in the second half he said, “In such situations, a kind of mentality sets in, one that is difficult to rid yourself of on the pitch. No one told us to play defensively. We should have kept the ball, not just pumped it ahead without direction. Because even though we defended really well, at this level you will be punished for doing that. We just kept telling ourselves ‘let’s hold on for some more time’”.

“Against Thailand and the UAE, we kept the ball, attacked more. We played without thinking about these things. But against Bahrain, it played on our minds that a draw would be enough. Had this not been our last game, we would do better,” Chhetri added.

However, he also added, that India was not facing small teams at the Asian Cup. “UAE, Thailand, Bahrain are not small teams. We caused UAE more grief than they gave us. We showed UAE and Thailand what we are capable of. To me, that means improvement. To me, it means we need to step up one more level and it is possible to do that. These 23 players have shown that they can keep the ball, attack and even score at this level,” he said.

When asked on India coach Stephen Constantine stepping down as the coach, Chhetri said, “He had got emotional when telling the players that he wouldn’t stay. We didn’t speak much about the game.”

Chhetri ended by saying that there is still a lot he has to offer for the game. “I know I don’t have a lot of years in the game. So every game I play, I really want to give it everything,” he added.