![\"\u2018A](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-133615605,imgsize-113890,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/sunil-chhetri.jpg\" "\\"Sunil")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nNEW DELHI: Former India captain Sunil Chhetri<\/a> has admitted he feels \u201ca little jealous\u201d watching the current generation get an opportunity to face footballing giants Brazil and Uruguay, revealing that he never got such a chance during his long international career.India are scheduled to host five-time world champions Brazil on October 3 and Uruguay three days later at Kolkata\u2019s Salt Lake Stadium. The high-profile fixtures will give a young Indian side a rare opportunity to test itself against two of South America’s biggest footballing nations.\u201cI feel a little jealous as a spectator. In my 24-26 years as a professional and nearly 20 years with the national team, I never got an opportunity like this,\u201d Chhetri told the All India Football Federation (AIFF).The former striker, who retired from international football last year, urged the current players to stay fit, compete with determination and make the most of the opportunity. Despite being away from the national-team setup, Chhetri said he remained confident in the squad’s young talent.\u201cThis is their time. There are so many talented youngsters in the team. Everyone gets their opportunity; just like I got mine 20 years ago,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Chhetri also refused to second-guess the coaching staff when asked about selection decisions and the omission of certain players, insisting that the coach was best placed to assess the team’s requirements.\u201cThe coach has to answer that. I’m just a fan now, watching like everyone else,\u201d he said.The 42-year-old, who recently returned to training, also dismissed any immediate prospect of making a comeback with a touch of humour.\u201cI just trained for 20 minutes. I’m around 42 now, I can barely run properly and I’m struggling,\u201d he joked.The Brazil and Uruguay fixtures come at a difficult time for Indian football, with the side currently ranked 138th in the FIFA rankings and uncertainty surrounding the domestic calendar. Chhetri, however, called for optimism and collective responsibility rather than a blame game.\u201cThe Indian football graph, for as many years as I\u2019ve played, has always been like this. We\u2019re probably in a phase where things are not going very well, because of what we\u2019ve done with the national team, what we\u2019ve done in the league, etcetera. But we all have to be hopeful,\u201d he said on the sidelines of the Football Players’ Association of India’s Indian Football Awards 2026.\u201cAt the end of the day, it\u2019s going to be fine. It takes time. Looking at all your faces, we all want things to be fine as soon as possible. It will be. I\u2019m always hopeful. Things might be a little bit ‘kharab’ (bad), but things are going to be fine.\u201dChhetri also accepted that players must take responsibility for the team’s struggles.\u201cI was also a part of the national team. And why has the ranking gone down? It\u2019s because of the way we have played, the games that we should have won but lost. That is the reason why we are where we are. As players, we take responsibility. I took it when I was there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Should Sunil Chhetri consider making a comeback to the national team?<\/p>\n 3k+ users shared opinion today <\/p>\n 5k+ users already voted today <\/p>\n 3k+ users shared opinion today <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Share Opinion<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n NEW DELHI: Former India captain Sunil Chhetri has admitted he feels \u201ca little jealous\u201d watching the current generation get an opportunity to face footballing giants Brazil and Uruguay, revealing that he never got such a chance during his long international career.India are scheduled to host five-time world champions Brazil on October 3 and Uruguay three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/sunil-chhetri.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"NEW DELHI: Former India captain Sunil Chhetri has admitted he feels \u201ca little jealous\u201d watching the current generation get an opportunity to face footballing giants Brazil and Uruguay, revealing that he never got such a chance during his long international career.India are scheduled to host five-time world champions Brazil on October 3 and Uruguay three […]","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36 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\u0b2c\u0b3f\u0b26\u0b47\u0b36<\/a>","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17948\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Chhetri backs coach, rules out comeback<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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