Indian football team's charismatic striker Sunil Chhetri has overtaken Argentine superstar Lionel Messi to reach the second position in the list of active players with the most goals. The 36-year-old Chhetri on Monday scored a brace for India against Bangladesh in the combined qualifying matches of FIFA World Cup 2022 and AFC Asian Cup 2023.
In this way, his total number of international goals has gone up to 74. Chhetri, who led India's to its first win in the last six years in the World Cup qualifiers, is only behind Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo (103) in the list of most active goalscorers.
Chhetri is two goals ahead of Barcelona star Messi and one goal ahead of UAE's Ali Mabkhout. Mabkhout is third with 73 goals. Messi scored his 72nd international goal in a World Cup qualifier match against Chile last Thursday, while Mabkhout increased his goal tally against Malaysia.
Chhetri scored the first goal in the 79th minute at the Jasim bin Hamad Stadium on Monday and then scored the second goal in injury time to ensure India's victory. The Indian captain is just one goal behind from breaking into the top 10 in the all-time list of highest goalscorers. He is one goal behind Hungary's Sando Koksis, Japan's Kunishige Kamoto and Kuwait's Bashar Abdullah, all three have scored the same 75 goals.