Indian football team captain and talismanic striker Sunil Chhetri is now the second highest goalscorer in Asia and fourth highest in international football after his hat-trick against Pakistan in the opening match of the SAFF Championship tournament in Bengaluru on Wednesday. Chhetri’s three goals took his tally to 90 goals in 138 matches and only former Iran footballer Ali Daei, coming from the Asian region, has more goals with 109 goals in 148 matches.
Chhetri went past Malaysia’s Mokhtar Dahari (with 89 goals) to become the fourth highest goalscorer in international football. Argentina’s FIFA World Cup-winning legend Lionel Messi (103 goals), retired Iranian player Ali Daei (109 goals) and Portugal great striker Cristiano Ronaldo (123 goals) are ahead of Chhetri in the goal-scoring list.
Here is a list of the top goalscorers in international football…
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) – 123 goals in 200 matches
2. Ali Daei (Iran) – 109 goals in 148 matches
3. Lionel Messi (Argentina) – 103 goals in 175 matches
4. Sunil Chhetri (India) – 90 goals in 138 matches
5. Mokhtar Dahari (Malaysia) – 89 goals in 142 matches
6. Ferenc Puskás (Hungary) – 84 goals in 85 matches
Easy. 1-0.
Chhetri scoressssssssss!#INDvPAKonFanCode #SAFFChampionship2023 pic.twitter.com/U76DqLonaO— FanCode (@FanCode) 21 June 2023
active players, Chhetri has the third highest number of goals By an international player, only Messi (103 goals) and Cristiano Ronaldo (123 goals) are ahead of him. The Indian men’s football team scored four goals in front of a hapless opposition defense to beat arch-rivals Pakistan in their opening game of the SAFF Championship 2023 at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Wednesday.
Indian captain Sunil Chhetri went ahead and scored a hat-trick (10′, 16′ and 73′) followed by Udanta Singh Kumam’s goal in the 81st minute. With this win, India have maintained their seventh straight clean sheet against their traditional rivals.
India positioned themselves at the top of the points table in Group A with a better goal difference than Kuwait, who earlier beat Nepal 3-1 in their tournament opener on Wednesday. India came into the tournament on the back of their title-winning campaign in the Intercontinental Cup 2023. He is currently ranked 101st in the FIFA rankings.
India started briskly and showed their attacking intent against 195th ranked Pakistan. India scored their first goal within 10 minutes of the game after Pakistan goalkeeper Saqib Hanif made a mistake in front of goal. Saqib Hanif failed to clear the ball quickly after receiving a back-pass and played it into the path of Sunil Chhetri. The Indian captain took advantage of the mistake and put India ahead 1-0.
(With ANI inputs)