Sunil Chhetri reacts to Messi, Ronaldo comparisons after brace against Bangladesh

Indian football Sunil Chhetri netted a brace against Bangladesh in the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup joint qualifiers on Monday. With the two goals, Chhetri took his tally to 74, two more than Lionel Messi in international football.

That led to fans once again drawing comparisons between Messi and Chhetri. Fans also compared Chettri to Portuguese skipper Cristiano Ronaldo, who is the only active footballer to have scored more international goals than Messi – 103 goals in 174 matches.

In an interview with Sports Today, Chhetri rubbished the comparisons, saying everyone in the football world is the fans of the FC Barcelona skipper Messi.

"Messi, Ronaldo comparison: There are no comparisons. People who understand football, they know there is no comparison as far as the players are concerned. There are thousands of players who are better than me in the world and all of them are fans of Messi. So now you know the comparison," Chhetri told Sports Today.

Chhetri went on to say that when he steps on the field, his focus is entirely on the game before revealing that he stays away from social media and avoids reading anything about himself or the team ahead of any game.

"When the match starts, I don't think about anything but the game. How to score, making runs, it's okay if I missed, make another run, all basic technical stuff. I'm not thinking about anything apart from the game. Before the game, I don't read anything about myself or the players. That is something I do religiously.

I anyway don't spend too much time on social media reading stuff that I don't like to read. I have different interests and I do read about them. As far as my critics are concerned, I keep them away before a game because at the end of the day I am human and it might affect me, which is not needed. I try to keep that away and take the game as it is," added Chhetri in the same interview.