Nothing quite underscores Sunil Chhetri's impact on Indian football like the numbers he has put up in India blue (and white and orange, of course). We know the headline numbers: 150 apps and 94 goals, but we take a deep dive into that to highlight just what that says about the greatness of Chhetri.
3
On the list of active players, Chhetri is the third-highest international (men's) goalscorer with 94 goals. Above him? A certain couple of players you may have heard of: Cristiano Ronaldo with 128 and Lionel Messi with 106.
4
On the all-time list, that includes retired men's players, he's 4th. That's because Iran legend Ali Daei splits Ronaldo and Messi at #2 with 108 goals.
1 = 2+3+4+5 (+1)
If you add the total goals scored by the footballers ranked #2, #3, #4 and #5 on the list of top Indian international goalscorers, you will get a tally that's just 1 more than the man on #1.
29 (IM Vijayan) + 27 (Bhaichung Bhutia) + 23 (Jeje Lalpekhlua) + 16 (PK Banerjee) = 95.
Sunil Chhetri, of course, has 94.
37
Since his debut in 2005, Chhetri has scored a massive 37% of all goals India has scored in those 19 years (94/256).
Note -- Those 256 goals were scored across 184 games, Chhetri played only 150 of those.
You what's even more stunning? Over the last five years (2019-), that number has jumped to a whopping 49%.
Here's some more detailed data drill-down for you:
Year-wise split of just how much % of India's goals Chhetri has scored -
26 = 31% of 1
The current India squad for the Kuwait game has 27 members. 26 of those have combined for 29 international goals. That is, put everyone else's goals together and you will get less than 1/3rd of the goals that Chhetri has scored. 31% to be exact.
53%
Since his debut in 2005, Chhetri has scored in 53% of all the games India has scored in, but take the figures from 2011 onwards and that figure jumps to 61%. Even more impressively, over the last five years (2019-), that number is 65%.
66%
Chhetri has scored at least once in 66% of the games India has won over these 19 years.
53
Chhetri equalled Vijayan's then-record of 29 goals in his 53rd match, in 2011 (Vijayan had taken 72 to get to his 29).
#1 = #2 + #3 (+6)
It's not just goals where Chhetri holds the India record, it's also appearances. In fact, the two next most capped players (Bhutia and Vijayan) have 84 and 72 caps respectively. Add that together and you get Chhetri's number of 150 (+6 caps).
A slightly more offbeat set of stats here
7.8 million
Chhetri has 7.8 million followers on Instagram, by far the most of any Indian footballer. Just how much, you ask? Well, #2 is Sahal Abdul Samad with 1.4 million and #3 is Gurpreet Singh Sandhu with 1.3 million. Chhetri has 267% more followers than Sahal and Gurpreet combined!
But that's not the most illuminating Insta stat, the one showcases just how much bigger than Indian football Sunil Chhetri the individual is this: the number of followers the official Indian football team account has -- 3.8 million, less than half the number that Chhetri has!
1.8 million
The same numbers for Twitter (now X) are equally drastic: Chhetri has 1.8 million followers, Sahal has 51.7 thousand, Gurpreet has 75.7 thousand while the Indian football team has 759.6 thousand.
These numbers just go to show that the sheer heft of Chhetri's social media presence has strengthened Indian football's presence in the mainstream quite exponentially.