As the first half of the game between Bengaluru FC and Aizawl FC at the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium in Aizawl approached its conclusion last Wednesday, the away team’s captain Sunil Chhetri caught hold of a stray ball before taking a few steps towards the opposition box and unleashing a near-unstoppable shot into the corner, giving home keeper Albino Gomes no chance.
In the process, Chhetri overtook Bhaichung Bhutia to become the highest Indian scorer in the history of the National Football League/I-League with 90 goals. With this, Chhetri now holds the Indian goalscoring records for both the domestic league and the national team.
Now into his 15th season of top-flight football in the country, the Bengaluru skipper is approaching the twilight of his career at 32. While both his records are unlikely to be broken for some time, the search for his successor must surely start now if not already so.
Chhetri, in conversation with Scroll, did mention that more Indian strikers must get game-time if the next Chhetri is to be found. This concern is more than justified as the top goalscorers this season both in the I-League and the Indian Super League are foreigners, barring CK Vineeth’s five-goal haul in the latter.
The sharpshooter’s point may be a legit one as we look at those that may fill the ace marksman’s boots once he decides to call it a day. Bear in mind that the league structure may change in the future and we may see an expanded league with 12 or more teams, allowing for more matchdays and Indian forwards to notch up more goals in a single season.
Jeje Lalpekhlua - 39 goals
At 26, the Mizo forward is well settled in both the national team and Mohun Bagan set-up and has won every single domestic honour on offer in the last two years: the I-League in 2014-’15, the 2015 ISL, the Federation Cup 2015 and the 2015-’16 SAFF Championship.
He has come of age, scoring eight times for the Blue Tigers over the last year, notching up important goals in the 6-1 thrashing of Laos in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification process, two in the SAFF semis against Maldives and one more in the final against Afghanistan.
Jeje’s most prolific season in the I-League came in 2010-’11 when he scored 13 goals for the Pailan Arrows while on loan from Pune FC but suffered a knee injury shortly after that sidelined him for a year.
Last season was arguably his finest at club level as he notched a handful of goals in continental competition as well and he has scored four of Bagan’s 15 goals this term. Needs a couple of good seasons to get to Chhetri’s landmark but is the man most likely to launch an assault on both the records in the near future.
Robin Singh - 23 goals
The sparsity of quality Indian forwards can be gauged from the fact that 26-year old Robin Singh is second in line to Lalpekhlua in trying to break Chhetri’s records.
A year-long knee injury disrupted Singh’s career which overlapped with Jeje’s annus mirabilis and has seen the Mizo firmly established as the country’s number one forward in the pecking order ahead of Singh and Chhetri.
Somewhat inconsistent at the highest level, Singh got his big break with Kolkata giants East Bengal in the 2010-’11 season where he spent three years before moving on to Bengaluru FC, who released him after two seasons.
Having missed an entire season of I-League action last time around, Singh returned to his first club where he is working his way back to the top and scored the winner against his former employers BFC as East Bengal beat them 2-1.
A return of six goals is his best haul in a single I-League campaign which came in the 2014-’15 season and the enormity of his task is seen in the fact that he will need at least two to three outstanding seasons of 10-plus goals if he is to come anywhere near the magic mark of 90 that Chhetri currently is on.
With a history of injury problems and Chhetri likely to play top-tier football for two more years if not more, it seems highly unlikely that the man who was once Sunil’s partner at club and country will get close to his record.
CK Vineeth - 29 goals
Now 28 and only four years younger than Chhetri, it is surely too much of an ask of the Kerala-born attacker to overhaul his clubmate’s record in so short a span.
That should not detract from the fact that Vineeth is playing at the peak of his game and despite Bengaluru’s well-documented struggles this season, has scored a significant amount of goals for both BFC and the Kerala Blasters over the last year.
He has two hat-tricks in the I-League, one for United SC and the other for BFC this season against Mumbai. Goalless in his last six appearances for the club, Vineeth will hope that both his and BFC’s fortunes take a turn for the better sooner rather than later.
The dark horses
Apart from the aforementioned three, there are no young strikers with 20-plus goals in the I-League but there are several contenders who may force themselves into the reckoning in the future.
Thongkhosiem Haokip at 23 has 14 I-League strikes but is not a regular starter under Trevor Morgan at East Bengal. Manandeep Singh, a year older has 15 to his name with nine of those coming in a single season for Air India when he was 19 but injury struggles have forced the Punjab forward to play a bit-part role in the I-League for the last three seasons.
Karan Sawhney played only 22 minutes for Bengaluru FC and those were his only I-League minutes prior to this season but the 23-year old has scored three for Mumbai FC in the ongoing campaign, coming off the bench on several occasions to nick a goal for Santosh Kashyap’s men.
DSK Shivajians’ Sumeet Passi at 21 has already scored for the national team but he will have to do better than his current tally of three if he hopes to reach Chhetri’s mark. Samuel Lalmuanpuia from Shillong Lajong is just 18 and became one of I-League’s youngest goalscorers last season after netting in a 3-1 victory over Aizawl, having also recently netted in an 1-1 away draw against East Bengal.
Chhetri has stated that he would like someone to break his record as it would mean that the player in question would also do well for the national team. Hence, it is imperative that the search for the next Chhetri keeps going on with the hope that a new generation of local attackers lead their I-league sides to victory.