Cometh the hour, as they say, cometh the man. It was the 100th international match of Indian football team’s captain Sunil Chhetri. The goal-scoring machine for his 97th-ranked side in the FIFA rankings made the milestone game against Kenya in the ongoing Intercontinental Cup memorable with two goals. But more than his goals, his milestone and even the morale-boosting win for his lowly-ranked side in world football, the diminutive Indian footballer brought in a big revolutionary change the way his cricket-crazy country looks at the game of football. The small man from Delhi shook the conscience of his nation’s sports fans with his words and performance. 

When India played their first game of the tournament against Chinese Taipei and won with the comfortable 5-0 scoreline, there were just around 2000-odd spectators cheering for the home team at the Mumbai Football Arena in the country’s business and entertainment capital. The abysmally low turn-out prompted the 33-year-old Indian captain to make an emotional appeal to football lovers to come to the ground and back the national team, which is using the tournament as preparation for the 2019 Asian Cup. A day after his hat-trick against Chinese Taipei, an emotionally-charged Chhetri uploaded the moving video on Twitter and made a heartfelt appeal to the fans to show their passion for football.  

He emotionally pleaded in the video in impeccable English, “To everyone who is not a football fan, please come and watch us for two reasons. No. 1 – it’s the best game in the world and No. 2 – we play for our country. We will make sure that once you come to watch us, you will not return the same person back home. To all of you who are fans of big European clubs and support European clubs with so much passion, thinking that our level is not the same. Agreed, the level is not the same, it is not even close. But with our desire and determination, we will make sure to make your time worth. To all of you who have lost hope, I request you to come and watch us in the stadiums.”

That video went viral on social media as a number of celebrities, including Indian cricket team’s captain Virat Kohli and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, joined hands with the social media users to pledge their support to the football team.

“To be called a proud sporting nation, we must accept and support all the sports equally,” Kohli said in his message on Twitter.

Tendulkar, who holds the world record of scoring the most number of runs and centuries in world cricket, released a video with an evocative message seeking encouragement for the athletes of the country, regardless of the sport. The video, in which he tagged Chhetri and the Indian football team, was captioned, “C'mon India... Let's fill in the stadiums and support our teams wherever and whenever they are playing.” In his video supporting Chhetri’s plea, the former Indian captain said, “It is really important that all of us stand behind them. Our athletes go through rigorous training sessions to bring laurels to our nation. Their dream is to represent the nation, that is India.” Three-time doubles Grand Slam winning Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza too gave her support to the Indian football team, tweeting to Chhetri, “Legend, Can I have a ticket please? 

Incidentally, the pledge in support of Chhetri’s plea almost transformed into a massive sports movement as the video was viewed close to a million times.

As a result of that massive social media support, when India took on Kenya on Monday, a packed stadium with thousands of fans holding their national flag and banners supporting their captain’s 100-game milestone greeted Chhetri and his team. There were Viking roars like the Iceland footballers and their fans inside the Mumbai stadium. There was also a guard of honor for Chhetri by his teammates. It was an electrifying full house environment and the Indian footballers didn’t disappoint their fans as they notched up an emphatic win the ‘centurion’ captain leading his side’s goal-scoring spree once again.

Soon after the final whistle was blown, the inspirational Indian footballer took to Twitter to convey his gratitude to all the fans, writing: “We promise you that if that’s the kind of support we get every time we play for the country, we will give our lives on the pitch. India, this night was special because we were in this together. Those in the stands shouting, and the ones at home cheering – thank you!” 

Both statistically and interestingly, among all the active players, only two current footballers have scored more international goals than Chhetri’s career haul of 61 from 100 matches and they are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.