Sunil Chhetri on Leeds United (ENG) radar

Courtsey : Times Of India, 11th Oct 2008



Delhi boy Sunil Chhetri’s explosive performance for the national football team has got English League One club Leeds United interested.
Sunil Chhetri
India star Sunil Chhetri works out with teammates at club ground. (TOI Photo)

A spurt of strong performances both for club and country and a recommendation from coach Bob Houghton was enough for Leeds to express their interest in the diminutive striker.

"It is flattering, but I am keeping my feet firmly on the ground," Chhetri, told TOI on Saturday.

In the past couple of months, the East Bengal striker has had several rounds of talks with agents in London, bringing him close to following in the footsteps of his idol, hero and strike partner Baichung Bhutia, who had played professional football for a couple of seasons for Bury FC, a second division English club.

At that time, Bhutia made about Rs 70 lakh per year, almost twice the amount of what the highest paid footballer in India, Brazilian Jose Baretto was earning.

Chhetri’s deal has been far from firmed up. "Nothing has been confirmed as yet but yes, I think I am close to getting there," said Chhetri, who has been a rage with the Indian team ever since he won coach Houghton’s confidence.

"Beyond India, not many are aware of our abilities so its imperative we park ourselves wherever we get a chance. We have to start from scratch, prove ourselves and then move forward," continued Chhetri, who overtook Bhutia as India’s highest paid footballer with a Rs 38-lakh annual contract.

The interest from Leeds United follows another offer letter from Estoril Praia, a second division league team from Portugal.

Officials of Estoril Praia watched Chhetri demolish a select Gouveia XI during the Indian team’s tour of Portugal but could not convince India’s highest paid footballer that a place in the Portuguese second division was his passport to European football.

Leeds United, though, is different. The English club is a big name in European football. They enjoyed their best season in 2001 when they made it to the semifinal of the UEFA Champions League until Valencia brought their European adventure to an end. Leeds are now competing in League One after they dropped to the third tier of English football for the first time in their history.

AFC Challenger Cup Triumph

The 4-1 convincing win in the final of the eight-nation AFC Challenge Cup over Tajikistan has earned India a place in the 2011 Asian Cup at Doha. This triumph is indeed indicative of the progress that our national soccer team has made with coach Bob Houghton at the helm of affairs since 2006 and has offered the team a chance to rub shoulders with the Asian football giants like South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia. Even as it was a splendid team effort that helped India tame the strong Central Asian team, striker Sunil Chhetri’s hat-trick stood out and made the difference at the end of the day. Needless to say that the Nehru Cup success, a year ago, marked the beginning of a revival of Indian football. Twenty-four years ago, there was a similar resurgence when under a Yugoslav coach, India with promising players in its repertoire, qualified for the Asian Cup. There was a ray of hope then that Indian football was not too far from emulating the feats attained by the players during the golden era of the 1950s-60s. Unfortunately, that was not to be and thanks to cricket taking centrestage, the beautiful game never lived up to its name in the country. Nevertheless, the fact that Indian football, today, is not just about captain Bhaichung Bhutia and his emergence as the sole star player, but also about a diminutive but fearless Chhetri and his goal-scoring abilities.


While the AFC Challenge Cup has since its inception in 2006 promoted lower-ranked teams of the Asian region and offered the winners an opportunity to take part in the elite league, it remains to be seen whether India can sustain a similar tempo at the Asian Cup three years down the line. The launch of the football league in Kolkata should help locate upcoming talents and similar professional leagues in other cities in future will woo more funds and followers for sure. Even as Indian football seems to have come of age, as some former greats have hinted, consistency would determine its progress apart from other factors like fitness levels of players, infrastructure at the grass-root levels and of course the pattern and standard of the system that promotes the game. Besides, the coach, who has been instrumental in sowing the seeds of revival, must be given a fair deal

India won AFC Challenge Cup 2008

Far away from the hustle and bustle of Olympics and about a single gold medal won by an Indian, the unsung heroes of Indian football piped Tajikistan 4-1 in the final match of AFC Challenge Cup that happened in New Delhi.

The final match was shifted to Ambedkar Stadium, New Delhi as the Gachibowli stadium in Hyderabad turned out to be a paddy field because of the continuous rains that belted in the city. As it is, the city did not deserve to hold the finals as hardly any fans turned up to the stadium to watch the tournament. Contrary to what happened in Hyderabad, the New Delhi stadium was filled with a huge number of well-wishers of Indian football, men and women as well.

There is nothing much to be written about the final match as India were already 3-0 up by 23 minutes through goals of Sunil Chhetri and Baichung Bhutia. Over all the team played with his full potential. Tajikistan too had their chances in the game, but they were too rattled to stage a come back in the match. Our defenders did quite well barring the occasional glitches that led to dangerous counter attacking by the Tajiks. The defense would have been much better, if we had Mahesh Gawli available, who is injured.

The midfielders had better day on the field and i am quite impressed by Meharajuddin Wadoo who came on as a substitute for N.P.Pradeep, who was seen quite rusty in the whole tournament. There is nothing much to talk about Steven Dias; his crosses and spot kicks were the highlight of this tournament. This man has a long way to go. I am still a bit apprehensive in praising Climax Lawrence, though he had a good game as the rest of the team members.

The forward line was quite exemplary yesterday with Chhetri pitching in with a hat-trick. Eventhough I am a Chhetri lover, I criticised him for his performance level in the group stages, but now, i think i will have to re-think on this. He did play very well, held the ball up, had good close control and scored 3 goals and this is a massive achievement for him as he is a shorty, nippy forward. Whatever you may say, Baichung undoubtedly is the trump card of India and he is so lively and remarkably flexible for his age. I hope we will have his service extended till the Asian Cup of 2011.

But I must say, the real hero in this tournament was Subrato Paul for me. He is an outstanding young goal keeper, who will grow in stature in the coming years. He is tall, brave and marvellously acrobatic in the goal. He was very influential through out the tournament and made some splendid saves through out the tournament. He seems to be a very calm and cool customer and i seriously wish that some international scouts pick him up, so that he can have a stint outside the country, which will help him massively.

By winning the AFC Challenge Cup we have sealed a berth in the 2011 Asian Cup happening in Qatar, by then we will have some more talented youngsters to choose from and they will offer serious contention for the current crop of players. Mind you, we have an U-16 team, who have blanked Asian Soccer power houses like Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

The media as always is beating drums for some Phelps & Dhonis who is of no importance to us. It took a bloody two hours for the websites of these illustrious beacons of our society to update and write a few lines about our football teams victory. Neither did i expect anything spectacular from them. There will be no victory parades in open buses, no endowments from the governments but Indian football will rally on; sad to say with a corrupt and inefficient man like Priyaranjan Das Munshi heading the ALL India Football Federation past 20 years for no reason.