Bare cupboard: What Chhetri's comeback tells about Indian football

Sunil Chhetri's return from retirement at 40 highlights India's striker shortage, praised by AIFF and legends.

Described as "a wise decision" by the sport's national federation, Sunil Chhetri's return from international retirement at 40 is certainly an acknowledgement of his greatness in Indian football but more strikingly, it lays bare the paucity of quality strikers in a country of over 1.4 billion.

No amount of praise is too high for the man who has served the national team with distinction for nearly two decades, eventually ending his glorious career as India's highest-ever goal scorer with 94 strikes to his name.

Chhetri was the world's third leading scorer among active players, behind Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentine icon Lionel Messi.

But his long list of achievements in the sport is one thing, and his coming out of retirement within a year is another. The surprise comeback raises a fair number of questions on whether Indian football can ever graduate from being a "Sleeping Giant", as once described by FIFA.

"It's a good decision form the team's point of view. You are asking me that you are calling back a 40-year-old to play for national team, but there have been similar instances in the past.

"We have been trying so hard to find good strikers, but unfortunately, we have not succeeded so far. Most of the top strikers in the ISL are foreigners, so that is how it is," conceded the legendary I M Vijayan in a conversation with PTI, trying to strike a balance between finding the positives and being mindful of reality.

According to the All India Football Federation (AIFF), Chhetri was coaxed out of retirement by national team head coach Manolo Marquez, who urged him to join his old teammates for the crucial final round of the AFC Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers.