Indian football team captain Sunil Chhetri on Monday surpassed Lionel Messi’s goal tally in international football, moving second in the list of goals scored for the national teams among active footballers. Chhetri reacted to the feat saying, “I do not count the number of goals. 10 years later, we will sit together, have a chat and then count”.

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Chhetri’s brace against Bangladesh in the 2022 world cup qualifiers and 2023 AFC Asian Cup took him second on the list of active goalscorers, with only the Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of him. He scored his 73rd and 74th goal in the 79th and 92nd minute of the game in a 2-0 win.

The Indian skipper’s brace also helped India register their first win in six years in world cup qualifiers. “We were guilty of missing a lot of chances. We could have done better. It has been a topsy-turvy qualifying campaign. Looking back, we understand that we could have done a lot better”, said Chhetri.

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“We will talk about it but I am happy that we got three points”, said Chhetri.

He later brushed all the questions about his goals aside, and said, “You know what. All of this is past. We play Afghanistan, and we have to be at our best. It will be a new day, a new canvas. And it is up to us to paint it the manner we want to”.

The India captain is just a goal away from entering world football’s all-time top-10 goalscorers. He is currently behind Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis, Japan’s Kunishige Kamamoto, and Kuwait’s Bashar Abdullah, who all have 75 goals.