My few encounters with Sunil Chhetri

Recent announcement that Indian National Football Team Captain, Sunil Chhetri will be recommended for the Padma Shri has delighted football fans across the country and I am one of them. 

Sunil has served Indian Football so well over the past many years and has been a perfect role model. With age he is becoming even better and I hope he will give us many more Wow! moments in the years to come. 

His records and statistics has been well documented so I will not get into that but as an Indian Football fan I will try to recall those few moments when I got a chance to meet the star of Indian Football, Sunil Chhetri. 

If I remember correctly first I heard about Sunil Chhetri was when I was in Kolkata during my college days around 2004 when my friend Abling Lepcha had mentioned his name. He had said a boy from the hills has joined Mohun Bagan.We were not aware back then Sunil was actually a Delhi Boy though his roots were Nepali. After that I don't recall much but during one of the Calcutta University Inter College Football match I have had the pleasure of playing against Sunil as he had played for another college may be Asutosh or Jaipuria. I was representing Scottish Church and we had lost by a solitary goal scored by Sunil off a header. Years later I had asked Sunil on twitter if he recalled that match and he had replied yes. 

Then I met Sunil years later when I was working for Zee Sports and he was playing for JCT. I was pretty new in the profession and after one of the matches at Salt Lake Stadium we had rushed to get his post match reaction and I had forzen just keeping the boom in front of him and not being able to come up with any questions. My senior cameraman, Debashish Batabyal (Debu da) had cover my back as he asked Sunil a few questions. 

Once Bhaichung Bhutia (Agya) had visited his alma mater, Tashi Namgyal Academy  and Sunil along with Renedy Singh (Bhai) had accompanied him. If I remember correctly this was I think after Bhaichung had been awarded the Padma Shri, Government of Sikkim had also felicitated him at Paljor Stadium. I was part of the media entourage from Kolkata which had accompanied him to cover the event. I can remember Sunil, Bhaichung and Renedy sitting in the front row and enjoying the musical program. 

After spending few years in Zee Sports the company closed down, I also moved on and did various other jobs, all these years Sunil was turning into a the star of Indian Football. 

Few years later I had joined Football Players Association of India under Bhaichung Bhutia and he took a decision to host the very first Indian Football Awards night in Kolkata. We all got very busy and many players from across the country were invited I had to go to the airport and pick many of them. One group included Sunil Chhetri, Steven Dias and Subashish Roy Chowdhary. Steven was cracking jokes right throughout the commute from airport to their guest house. 

Later in the evening a cracker of an event was held at the Taj Bengal hotel. Sunil and Steven along with few other players had surprised everyone with their dance when they moved to the beats of few Bollyhood numbers on stage. After the event was over I remember Sunil asking Bhaichung for his car to go out for a party in his room.

In 2013 I joined Churchill Brothers where I was assigned their media job and just earlier that year they had won the I-League with Sunil playing a major part. Though when i joined he had already left Churchill and joined the newly formed Bengaluru FC. 

While I was still in Goa. It was announced that India team will play a friendly match with Bangladesh and after the team arrived I had gone to see their training session. I was standing just behind the fence and looking towards the ground someone came from behind patted my back and said Chamling!, it was Sunil and I was surprised he knew my surname. I had quickly reacted with "Hi Sunil How are You?".

Then again during the I-League Bengaluru FC had come to Goa to play one of their matches and I wanted to take a photo with Sunil Chettri now a big star of India Football and Captain of both the club and National team. So I contacted Kunal Majgaonkar, Bengaluru's media manager. He told me to drop in at the team hotel in the evening. I took out my scooty and headed for Colva but along the way it got punctured and I had to push it towards the nearest repair shop. It was already 9 pm so after the tyre was fixed I reluctantly reached the hotel.Kunal was sitting in the lobby and asked why I was late. Sunil had already gone to his bedroom. I did not wanted to disturb him but Kunal told me he will go and check. He came back with Sunil and we quickly took a photo and exchanged a few words. 

I hope Sunil keeps on flying the flag of Indian Football high and keeps on scoring those wonder goals. It has been an absolute pleasure to watch him over the years and there is no doubt about the fact that he will go down in the history of Indian Football as one of the greatest.