Sunil Chhetri makes official Sporting B league debut

Indian football captain Sunil Chhetri finally made his league debut for his side Sporting Clube de Portugal ‘B’ in the Portuguese Second Division (Liga de Honra) against SC Freamunde as he came on as a second half substitute.

SCP ‘B’ won 2-0 away to SC Freamunde through a brace by Ricardo Esgaio (49th & 65th minute) with Sporting B moving-up a place into second place in the league table behind Belenenses Lisboa.

Sunil Chhetri had gotten some playing time for Sporting B in pre-season, but then he was away for a few weeks on India assignment at the 2012 Nehru Cup and then returned as the tournament’s champion and ‘Most Valuable Player’.

But at Sporting B he had to start from scratch, get accustomed again and integrate into a working team as the young Sporting B side have been impressive since the start of the Liga de Honra season.

Finally yesterday Sporting B coach Oceano Andrade da Cruz gave Sunil Chhetri his league debut in the 84th minute and one can only hope it was the first of many more to come from the India captain. As the match had been decided by then it was an uneventful first game for Sunil Chhetri.