ISL FINAL today.
One of the most difficult things in sport is to accept you were complacent. Very rarely does any athlete agree with such an outrageous proposition. And if you are Sunil Chhetri, India’s best football brand, such a thing is not just improbable, it is impossible.
And yet it happened. When I asked him what explained the horror run between November and January and if he was complacenent, Chhetri agreed he was. He agreed that with all things going his way, he may have started to take things for granted. But sport being the biggest leveller of all, allowed one of its most committed devotes one more opportunity to redeem.
And Sunil grabbed it with both hands.
Sample these:
“Everything was going right for me. And may be when I look back I did become a tad complacent. And that cost me and us. Sport is a great leveller and it was yet another example when sport teaches you life lessons. I was able to understand this before it was too late and hence could start the turnaround”, confessed Chhetri.
Talking about Bengaluru FC’s incredible turnaround story, Sunil said, “I would be lying if I said that we completely believed in it (turnaround). What we did believe was if we stuck together and we did give whatever we had in every game, something could still happen. We needed to win six games and a draw to make it. So that is how tough it was. That is why against Northeast or after that against Jamshedpur FC or Odisha FC, we did not think or believe completely that we are going to qualify. But we did know that taking one game at a time and staying alive could give us one more opportunity in the next game. So, we were hanging by the thread and we were taking one game at a time at that period.”
Finally, on dealing with poor form, Sunil said, “I was benched and did not start in a few games. And that really hit me. I started looking within myself. And that’s where people like my wife, and my close friends really helped. I realized that small margins that I am very good at taking care of is what I was missing. So, then I started fixing those things. And when I did so it helped the whole dressing room. But yes, you are right, there was a sense of complacency. I cannot tell you exactly how I know it. But I know it was there. Small margins. And the only silver lining is I caught it up quite early. I fixed it. Now I feel good”, he said.
Speaking on his career, Sunil said, “I know it won’t last forever. Whatever number of games I play now I want to enjoy them. That’s what I want to do at the end of 22 years”.
It was a conversation that I much enjoyed. One that went deeper and allowed us to talk things that aren’t normally discussed. Do watch on RevSportz as part of #BackstageWithBoria