Talk about Indian football and skipper Sunil Chhetri will pop up right in your mind. The 32-year-old striker has been grabbing all the heading all by himself and quite rightly so. Surpassing the likes of Bhaichung Bhutia, who retired in 2011, back in 2013 in terms of goals scored for India (Bhutia scored 43), the Secunderabad-born has yet again booked his place amongst the legendary names like Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Wayne Rooney.

India were plying their trade against Kyrgyzstan in the Asian Cup qualifiers and it was the skipper Sunil Chhetri who proved out to be the winner for the Men in Blues. Taking an exhilarating run from his own box, Chhetri went to score the goal and gave his side a well-deserved victory. With the goal, the 32-year-old completed his 54 goals in Indian jersey and surpassed England’s all-time top scorer Wayne Rooney. And what adds further brilliance to his record is the fact that he only took 94 games to reach the milestone, while the Manchester United man took 119 games to reach his 53-goal benchmark.

Chhetri, who is now just six games away from completing his 100 games from India, is now 19 goals behind the Portuguese sensation Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 73 goals in 139 matches, while just four goals behind Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who has scored 58 goals in 118 appearances. The third spot is acquired by America’s Clint Dempsey (56 in 134 matches). He sure is behind both Messi and Ronaldo, but he stands up on top when it comes to the strike rate. The Indian skipper averages 0.574 goals per game, while the footballing stalwarts in Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi average 0.525 and 0.42 goals per game respectively.

However, when it is about all time active footballers, Chhetri finds himself sitting on the fourth spot, behind Brazilian sensation Neymar (0.68), Maldives’ skipper Ali Ashfaq (0.68) and Bosnia’s Edin Dzeko (0.63). On an international scale, Chhetri is in under 30 and by the time he retires, he is well expected to come under top 20.