India’s supreme forward Sunil Chhetri scored twice in the final league game of the SAFF Championship against Maldives, which booked the team a clash against Nepal for the title. This took his international goal-tally to 79, going past one of the greatest footballers of all time, Pele.
India, seven-time champions of the SAFF Championship, entered yet another final with a stupendous performance against hosts Maldives. Manvir Singh opened the scoring for the side in the first half, but the lead he provided was cancelled out by Ali Ashfaq’s penalty.
This is when Chhetri stepped up and provided two goals in the space of nine minutes. His first came through a brilliantly chested ball from Manvir, which sat up nicely for the 37-year-old to rifle it past the keeper.
His second came from a long-range free-kick curled in by Pritam Kotal, which found Chhetri’s head in the box and India’s number 11 steered it past the keeper to establish a two-goal cushion.
If Chhetri enters the pitch against Nepal in the final of the SAFF Championship, it’ll be his 125th game for the national side. As it stands, his 79-goal tally keeps him 6th on the all-time list.
Only Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Ali Daei (Iran), Mokhtar Dahari (Malaysia), Ferenc Puskas and Lionel Messi are ahead of him, with only two of the mentioned names still up and running.
The Brazilian legend, who guided his national side to three World Cup triumphs in 1958, 1962 and 1970, scored 77 times for the national side.
Puskas, who left his national team to a World Cup final in 1954 and also scored in the final in a losing cause, has registered 84 international goals. Towards the end of his career, he also represented Spain and played for them in the 1962 World Cup, but never scored a goal for La Roja.
