Sunil Chhetri Shows that Indians Can Play Soccer
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Contributed by : Harmit Singh Kamboe
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Lets face it, the stereotype of a person from India in America is unlikely to include a soccer player.
Thank God for Sunil Chhetri, who is showing the world that we do and can infact play the worlds most popular sport.
In April 2010, Sunil Chhetri became the first Indian ever to be signed up for a MLS (Major League Soccer) club in the United States. Sunil has been signed up by the Kansas City Wizards (http://www.kcwizards.com). Before being signed by the Wizards, Sunil had a signed contract in hand withan English Club, Queens Park Rangers (QPR). QPR is owned by Lakshmi Mittal, the steel magnate.
Sunil was refused a work permit in the UK because India's FIFA ranking (India's ranking bounces around between 130 to 150) is below 70 , the cut off for the accepting players from low ranked nations.
So who is Sunil Chhetri?
He is only the third Indian to play professional soccer outside India. The first was Mohammed Salim in the 1930's who played for the Scottish club, Celtic. Bhaichung Bhutia, India's current captain and footballing legend was the second who played in Malaysia and with FC Bury in the UK for 3 seasons from 1999 onwards.
Sunil, stands only 5 feet 7 inches but has scored 16 goals for India in 35 appearances. Born in 1984, in India, he admits he took to soccer so that he could get into a good college and a scholarship. But once his soccer career took off, he realized he could go further. Earlier in 2008, he scored a hatrick, in the AFC Challenge Cup beating Tajikistan and India entered the Asia Cup 2011 after more than a 20 year gap.
Sunils father hails form the armed forces and he went to the Army Public School in Delhi. He started playing for local clubs in Delhi, before spending time with JCT, East Bengal and Dempo, all top clubs in the Indian I-League (professional league).
If you wish to see Sunil in action, just type his name into YouTube and watch some of his clips. At last, we have a role model for our young boys and girls in soccer.
Sunil's new coach, Peter Vermes, at the Wizards was quoted saying "One thing we really like about Sunil is that he's a crafty player. Technically he's very sharp, and he's a guy that has good attacking tendencies." In his first two practice games in the US against university teams, Sunil has racked up a total of 4 goals.
If we do nothing else this year, lets expand our horizons and keep an eye on how this young man does at Kansas City.
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