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.