Sunil Chhetri’s club record can no longer be questioned

India captain Sunil Chhetri has been criticised over the years for his form at club level. That criticism has mainly come from the Bengali media of Kolkata as the striker could never help a club from the City of Joy win the league title despite spending five and a half seasons there for three different clubs.

The statistics though gives a different perspective because barring a couple of seasons at Mohun Bagan in the early stages of his career, Sunil has averaged a goal in almost every two games wherever he has played. However for the majority of his club career in India Sunil has rarely completed a full season due to injuries or stints abroad.

In fact between 2008 and 2013, Sunil never played an entire campaign and as a result his club honours have been minimal in that period with his first I-League success only arriving in 2013 when he joined Churchill Brothers on loan from Sporting Lisbon B in the second half of the season.

2013-14 has turned out to be the best season of his career as he is not only on the verge of becoming the first-ever Indian highest scorer of a league campaign since 1997-98 but Sunil has also joined a select group of players to win the top flight title with two different clubs in successive seasons.

Sunil would have also been part of Dempo’s title winning squad of 2009-10 as his eight goals set the Goan club on their way towards a fourth league crown but the Arjuna Awardee completed a move to USA’s Kansas City Wizards and missed the second half of the season. Another near miss was in 2006-07 when he was the top Indian scorer with 11 goals but his club JCT finished runners-up in the National Football League.

Sunil would have won the I-League with Dempo in 2009-10 but midway through the season he moved to USA

But this season has been record-breaking for Sunil as earlier in the campaign he also became India’s top scorer at international level as per AIFF records and it could get better as he is now one goal away from surpassing Bhaichung Bhutia’s 17-year-old goal-scoring record in the league.

Unlike many of his previous club stints in Indian football, Sunil is the biggest star of his club Bengaluru FC and their leader. He inspired them by not only scoring goals but also leading by example as he accepted coach Ashley Westwood’s decision to play him on the left wing. Sunil had to deal with the physical demands of playing in a wide role which required him to stay supremely fit and show more work-rate. The 29-year-old did a job for the team with and without the ball and that speaks volumes about the player’s class and professionalism.

He effectively scored 14 goals playing as a winger, something which has been rarely achieved by even foreigners in the past, and led Bengaluru FC to glory in their debut season. Many people believe that Sunil has entered the peak stage of his career and looking at his hunger and willingness to improve despite being the country’s best player, it’s fair to say that the three-time AIFF Player of the Year still has plenty of years left in him.

Sunil should easily overtake Bhaichung and become the all-time highest Indian scorer in the combined history of the National Football League and I-League. He currently has 77 and needs 12 more to surpass Bhaichung and even the milestone of 100 looks within reach.

Besides the goals, the Bengaluru captain also worked hard defensively for his club in an unfamiliar wide role

More importantly the 2013-14 campaign should shut up all critics who previously blasted him unnecessarily for his club record although that has only brought the best out of the player. “Such comments motivate me. No excuses but due to injury or because I had gone abroad, I didn’t play too many games over the past few seasons,” Sunil was quoted saying by Hindustan Times after the fairytale I-League triumph with Bengaluru.

Since this is his tenth different club and he hasn’t spent more than three seasons in one club in the past, Sunil has never established himself as a great of any particular club. But no matter how long he stays at Bengaluru FC, he will always be remembered as a legend here because he has been instrumental in the JSW-owned club’s history-making debut campaign.

Maybe Bengaluru FC, which the India skipper has understandably already described as the most professional he has ever been at, is the club where Sunil will eventually spend a long time and enhance his legacy.