Sunil Chhetri is the talk of the town right now. With 8 goals in 4 games, he led India to glory in the Intercontinental Cup and is now joint second for most goals among active players. But there is one stat which needs to be seen to be believed. The man is actually more consistent than Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi - two household names in football. No, it's no joke a the numbers prove it. AFP/PTI/AP Ronaldo has scored 81 goals in 150 games, Messi and Chhetri are both on 64 but have played 124 and 102 games respectively. The Portuguese has 0.54 goals per game while the Argentine is on 0.52 and our skipper beats them well to make it 0.63. Of course the level of opposition is different, but then Chhetri does not get to choose whom he plays and is a very good footballer in his own right. So if he is scoring more consistently than two of the best players in the world, he must be doing something right. PTI Chhetri is 3 games away from becoming India's most capped player and if he is around for a few more years, could end up with a substantial amount of goals. But for the moment, let's just celebrate his success.<doc-sep>The recent case where Sunil Chhetri was compared to Lionel Messi shows that the media and pundits are quick to make comparisons between 'winners' and 'legends', whose feats are not close to being similar in scale The Indian media went overboard recently, perhaps displaying a fair degree of naivety, when they celebrated star forward Sunil Chhetri’s feat of equaling Lionel Messi’s 64 international goals. That’s not all — they also bragged that the only contemporary player to have scored more goals than Chhetri in international football was Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo. Elsewhere, Afghan skipper Asghar Stanikzai said, “Our spinners are better than those that India possesses,” throwing down the gauntlet before their debut Test at Bengaluru recently. The Afghans are the babes among Test-playing nations of the world. India are currently ranked number one. Are players, experts and the media, therefore, now guilty of shooting their mouths off without thinking of how odious comparisons can be in sport, especially when they are between two individuals at different levels? Take for instance, Chhetri’s 64 international goals against those of Messi (64) and Ronaldo (81); chalk and cheese! One writer even went to the extent of mentioning the fact that the India skipper’s strike rate was 0.63 per match, which was much superior to that of Messi’s (0.52) and Ronaldo’s (0.54). There is no doubting the fact that Chhetri has literally carried the Indian football team on his shoulders for the last few years. When he was asked about the milestone he had reached at a media conference after the Intercontinental Cup final, he was candid when he said that there could be no comparison between him and Messi. ‘I’m not taking that comparison seriously. Messi is at a different level.” I would really like to know how many of Messi’s and Ronaldo’s goals are against the top 25 teams in the world, and how many of Chhetri’s goals are against teams that are ranked in the top 100. Of course, without belittling his lion-hearted performances, I can’t expect any of them to be against the top 25, can I? Hope the India striker’s fans and football pundits understand the difference and celebrate him for what he is; not by comparing him to legends! Afghanistan has some talented spinners in Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Zadran, Mohammad Nabi, Rahmat Shah and Zahir Khan. They are proven match-winners in T20 cricket. But to say that they are better than Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, in Tests, would be stretching it a bit too far. Before the India-Afghanistan Test, Ashwin had 311 Test scalps, with 26 five-wicket and seven 10-wicket hauls. Jadeja too had 165 Test wickets, with nine five-wicket hauls and one 10-wicket haul. Irrespective of how they perform at Bengaluru, Stanikzai had no business questioning the credentials of proven match-winners like Ashwin and Jadeja. ‘Wake not a sleeping lion’ would perhaps have been the right attitude for the Afghan skipper to take, before their big day, instead of needling the Indians with such bravado. In sport, whether it is at the local or international levels, the underdogs quite often surprise fancied individuals and teams. To do that, however, the weaker individuals/teams need to accept the fact that the opposition is stronger. Next, strengths-and-weaknesses analysis and good strategy helps create an upset. Waking a sleeping lion hardly ever helps. In the mid-90s, in a Ranji match between Mumbai and Vadodara at RCF Sports Club, Chembur, Sachin Tendulkar was picking singles and was rather subdued by his standards. Mukesh Narula, from forward-short-leg was sledging him, when non-striker Sanjay Manjrekar, the Mumbai skipper, walked up to the fielder and said, “Why are you waking him up? You’ll have to pay for it!” Tendulkar scored a hundred and helped Mumbai win. Apples and oranges need to be separated, especially in a world sport like the FIFA World Cup and the Olympic Games. And cricket, though it is restricted to only a few teams at the Test level, would benefit from apples playing against apples and oranges against oranges. That perhaps would be the only way of pragmatic inclusivity in sport at the world level. Everybody loves a winner. And to find more winners, it would be ideal for sport to be all-encompassing, and compartmentalised according to aptitude and dexterity. Therefore, on my wish list would be two – even three – divisions at which teams and individuals compete at The Games, the football World Cup, in Test cricket and in other sports. The football World Cup of 2026, to be held in the US, Mexico and Canada, we are told, will have 48 teams playing in the finals. That, experts suppose, is FIFA bending over backwards to be more inclusive, especially for nations like India, which is believed to be a huge market for sport. If, therefore, there were two divisions of 32 teams each at the World Cup, we would have two World Cup winners, one from the top ranked teams and the other for teams ranked by FIFA from 51 to 100. Speaking at a talk show before the opening ceremony of the FIFA World Cup of 2018, Baichung Bhutia mentioned the fact that India would have to get into the top 10 of Asia if they had to play the World Cup finals in 2026. “That,” he said, “is a major task and India would have to work very, very hard to be ranked among Asia’s best.” Once Asian champions, the Blue Tigers are now in 15th position. How many Asian teams have really made it past the first stage into the knockout rounds in the World Cup? Very few, till date! Therefore, wouldn’t it be better to have a separate division for lower ranked teams? The Olympics too, could have two different levels of participation, with different qualification criteria for each event/sport. This would provide backward sporting nations the opportunity to participate and create a sporting culture for themselves.<doc-sep>Image Source : PTI Chhetri equals Messi, becomes second-highest goalscorer after Ronaldo Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri just created history with his brace against Kenya as he led India to win the Intercontinental Cup on Sunday at the Mumbai Football Arena. His brace not only helped the Blue Tigers to lift the cup, but also places him as the second highest International scorer along with Argentine great Lionel Messi. Chhetri has now scored overall 64 International goals for the country and so has Messi for Argentina. This is a huge accomplishment as Chhetri has now joined an elite club which every other player practically dreams of. Chhetri, who had come into the match with 62 goals, gave India the lead in the eighth minute before scoring the second goal in the 29th minute to put him on par with the Argentine. It was the Indian skipper's 102nd International match and at the rate this 33-year old is going, Cristiano Ronaldo's tally of 81 in 150 matches is not too far away. Chhetri has scored 0.62 goals per match as against 0.52 of Messi (64 goals from 124 matches). The Indian has also a better goal average than Ronaldo (0.54 per match). Chhetri, who became only the second Indian to feature in 100 international matches after former skipper Bhaichung Bhutia, had earlier equalled Sweden's Zlatan Ibrahimovic and World Cup winner Brazilian Ronaldo in the match against New Zealand which India lost 1-2. Twitter, however, has been left gobsmacked as we now have an Indian G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time) who is known as Sunil Chhetri and many sportspeople have wished the Indian skipper on his achievement. Take a look. A few Bollywood celebrities also pitched in as well.<doc-sep>India have witnessed a phenomenal rise in its FIFA ranking since 2016, and have gone from 173 two years back to 97 in the latest rankings. This higher ranking was achieved not only with the help of good results in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers (in which India topped their group) but also through friendlies arranged against higher ranked opponents. Now, however, all that is set to change, after FIFA announced a new system of rankings that will give more importance to competitive matches, rather than friendlies. Over the last couple of years, India have played a number of friendlies, and friendly tournaments like the Tri-Nation Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, both of which the Blue Tigers managed to win. Hence, according to the new ELO Ranking system, the Blue Tigers are likely to fall from their current 97th spot. India captain Sunil Chhetris, fresh from his side's Intercontinental Cup victory, believes that the new ELO rankings will be a welcome change for his side, as they will have to play more official international matches instead of friendly tournaments. "It’s all right. That’s not something to be too bothered about," Chhetri told Sportskeeda on the sidelines of an event organised by Kia Motors, where the Indian football team and Bengaluru FC captain selected two kids to be the official match ball carriers at the FIFA World Cup, in Russia. "I personally am not too bothered about the rankings anyway. It’s a good thing, now that we have to play (more) official games," he further said. The Asian Games conundrum With the Intercontinental Cup over, India's next target will be playing in the Asian Games. However, there is some doubt surrounding the national team's participation, as the Indian Olympic Association has stated that it will only send teams that are in the top eight in their respective sports in Asia. India currently being ranked 97, do not make the cut. However, India have seen a massive upsurge in their performances in the last couple of years, something that could well turne this decision in their favour, despite the fact that they are ranked 14th in Asia. These performances have led to a debate about whether the Blue Tigers should go for the Asian Games. "I just hope that we do get the opportunity. Hope that the U-23 team goes and competes there," said Chhetri. "I just want them to improve. Of course, we haven’t done great in the Asian Games, so it's very important for the kids to go and play there. So I just hope that we get an opportunity." While the majority of the Indian squad is set to be under the age of 23, the tournament authorities do allow three senior players on the roster. However, Chhetri played down talks about him making the team of the Asiad, saying that the tournament will be more about the U-23 players, rather than the three seniors. "It’s not my call (whether I will play in the Asian Games. It's not about the three seniors. It's more about the U-23 team," he said. As of now, India's biggest target will remain the AFC Asian Cup in January, where they face the likes of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Thailand in Group A. While the Intercontinental Cup served as a good preparation for the Asian Cup, it will be interesting to see whether a few more new faces come into the reckoning, if India do manage to make it to the Asian Games later this year.<doc-sep>
After striking a brace to help the Indian men's football team clinch Intercontinental Cup title, captain Sunil Chhetri offered a humble reaction to levelling Lionel Messi's interntional goal tally of 64. Chhetri's two goals drew him level with Argentina's star striker Messi and placed him next only to Portugal's Crisriano Ronaldo on the list of active players with most number of international goals. "I don't take the comparison seriously. Messi is of different level. I'm just happy that I've scored 64 goals for my country," Chhetri was quoted as saying by ANI on Monday. Chhetri came into the spotlight after posting a video on Twitter in which he appealed to fans to come watch the Indian team play in the stadium during the Intercontinental Cup. "I wasn't thinking anything. It was something that came in my mind. I am happy that people understood it and I was really happy to get such support," said Chhetri. "Happy for everyone who was on pitch and off pitch. If we get support from people like we got in Mumbai, we'll give everything for India. It is really motivating when the stadium is jam-packed," he added. Chhetri struck two sublime strikes in the seventh and the 29th minute, one off his right and the second off his left, to help India beat Kenya 2-0 at Mumbai Football Arena and lift the Intercontinental Cup on Sunday. Speaking following the win, Chhetri said that his side have had tough 20 days, but their determination helped them to bounce back and come out victorious eventually. "Football is my life and I am living it. After 20 tough days, we won the tournament. We had tough time. We lost match against New Zealand but we came back and seal the victory. All of us have the determination for the game and for the country," Chhetri said. #WATCH: 'I'm happy that people understood it & I was really happy to get such support', says Sunil Chhetri, Captain, Indian football team on the video in which he urged the people to support the Indian football team. pic.twitter.com/y0YxqJkKQV — ANI (@ANI) June 11, 2018 Chhetri was impressive throughout the prestigious tournament, having notched up eight goals-- including a hat-trick against Chinese Taipei. He smashed two goals against Kenya during his 100th international match, while his one goal came against New Zealand in the last Intercontinental Cup game. (Inputs from ANI)