India cricket captain Virat Kohli was among those who flooded social media to wish football team captain and icon Sunil Chhetri as he turned 36 on Monday.
“Happy b’day skip. Have a great one and God Bless you,” Kohli said in his Instagram story with a photo of him with Chhetri, who is India’s all-time leading goalscorer.
“Happy Birthday @chetrisunil11. hope you continue to take Indian football to even greater heights with your legendary goals and leadership. have a wonderful day today. Wishing you great success always,” tweeted star former India allrounder Yuvraj Singh.
India goalkeeper and Chhetri’s clubmate at Bengaluru FC Gurpreet Singh Sandhu tweeted: “Happy Birthday Legend @chetrisunil11.”
The All India Football Federation official Twitter handle shared a rare photo of one-year old Chhetri, saying: “Captain, Leader, Legend, 35 years ago at the age of one.”
The AIFF’s handle also shared some of Chhetri’s goals in a national team shirt.
Chhetri is the second active footballer to have scored most international goals, having netted 72 times from 115 outings, while Cristiano Ronaldo has 99 goals to his credit from 164 outings. Lionel Messi is behind Chhetri with 70 (138).
Having donned the blue stripes for a record 115 times, Chhetri is also the most capped footballer of the country.
“115 appearances, 72 goals (for India), 182 appearances, 92 goals (for Bengaluru FC). One Sunil Chhetri,” Bengaluru FC said in a tweet, also sharing a video of a packed Sree Kanteerava Stadium chanting Chhetri’s name.
The Indian Super League (ISL) also shared one of Chhetri’s amazing goals on their Twitter handle with a caption saying: “Cool as you ice. #GoaloftheDay feat. @chetrisunil1.”
“Records, like age, is just another number!” ISL had tweeted earlier in the day with a photo of Chhetri.
In a video shared by AIFF, Chhetri’s former teammates Gouramangi Singh, Mehraj Uddin Wadoo and Renedy Singh are seen wishing him.
Chhetri was voted as the favourite player of the AFC Asian Cup 2019, the Asian Football Confederation had said on Saturday. Chhetri edged out Eldor Shomurodov of Uzbekistan in the final by a 51-49 percent of votes in a fan poll conducted by the AFC.
“Join us in wishing Captain Fantastic & #AsianCup2019 fan favourite player @chetrisunil11a very Happy 36th Birthday,” Asian Cup’s official Twitter handle said in a tweet.
