Sunil Chettri the Indian skipper feels winning SAF football championship this year has been his best achievement in recent times. The reason behind such thoughts is that most of the people from India’s football fraternity had discarded Indian football team before their final in the SAFF against fancied Afghanistan.
Chettri who has already joined the training of his Bengaluru FC, spoke over phone from Bangalore on Monday evening, “Most of the people had prediction that we would not be able to defeat Afghanistan in the SAF final.
It might be due to our poor show in the World Cup qualifiers. More importantly, we did not have a solid preparation for this championship due to our engagement in ISL also. There could not be any proper preparatory camp for the tournament also. So, from that perspective I feel winning SAFF has been the best achievement in recent times.”
Commenting on Virat Kohli’s wish after they defeated Afghanistan in the SAF final, Chettri informed saying, “We all the members of Indian team have been highly inspired by Kohli’s congratulatory messages. I also have sent him text, wishing his success in the forthcoming Australia tour. Although both of us belong to New Delhi we hardly get time to meet. Rather we sometimes talk over phone.”
Speaking about the gain from SAF along with the title, Chettri explained saying, “Indian football has gained a few talented youngsters like Pranay Halder, Pritam Kotal, and Lindoh. So this has been another big gain for us looking towards the future.”