One step, one kick and Sunil Chhetri was on top of the pile. Look for his name anywhere in Indian football and that's where you'll usually find him -- on Saturday a calmly taken penalty took his goal tally in the Indian Super League to 64. Top of the pile.
That goal was Bengaluru FC's third on the night, during a performance for the ages as they dismantled defending league shield winners Mohun Bagan 3-0. Considering that Bagan had rocked up to the Kanteerava and won 0-4 last season, this was some statement.
The day of that 0-4 loss, early in April this year, Chhetri had played just 59 minutes and been an anonymous figure for all of it. There was plenty of running -- there always is -- but not much end product. Over the past few years, that seemed to have been the case for Chhetri. This may seem near blasphemous considering the body of work the man has put up over two decades, but the numbers don't lie: The last season Chhetri contributed at least 0.5 (goals and assists) per league game was in 2020-21. The last season he scored at 0.5 goals per game was the one before that.
This is just hard evidence to back up what we've seen over the past few years: Chhetri's form in front of goal has slowly been dipping. Even as he continued to shoulder (almost exclusively at times) the job of scoring for the national team, in the ever-longer domestic season, his age was telling, and so was the dip in quality of the Bengaluru squad.
He would, of course, come up with a memorable goal or three -- especially in the 22/23 season when he roused himself during the playoffs and as an impact sub carried Bengaluru to the final, scoring one of Indian football history's most controversial goals (more for what it triggered than how he scored it) along the way. This hinted at that ruthless goal scoring machine still being in there, but we were yet to see a sustained run.
This season, he's started like he means to go on one. We saw it first in the Durand Cup, where he alternated between the starting XI and the bench but across 202 minutes scored thrice and assisted twice. In the first three games of this ISL season, he's played just 170 minutes but scored thrice and assisted once. He's going at the kind of rate we've not seen for a while.
Of course, these are way-too-early days to predict anything but the way he's playing fuels the belief that... well, he's back. Still stationed on the left wing, he's dovetailing superbly with Edgar Mendez in the centre and young academy graduate Vinith Venkatesh on the right. The press, always ferocious, seems better coordinated now. The passing's consistent and so is his chance creation (sample the through ball for Alberto Noguera's chance on Saturday). He's not snatching at shots anymore, and where he used to be just late to chances the previous few seasons, the timing seems to back. His assist on Saturday was vintage Chhetri, racing into the six-yard box to get on the end of a Mendez ball, realizing the angle was far too tight, and immediately touching it behind for Suresh Singh to score. He may be spending less time on the pitch than he's used to it, but the now 40-year-old is having an impact and then some.
He's also playing with a smile. For Bengaluru coach Gerard Zaragoza, that's everything. "I think he was under a lot of pressure with the national team, here also, but now... we talk a lot and I say, come and enjoy it."
He certainly looks like he's enjoying it. This a better Bengaluru squad than we've seen for some time and with Mendez and Jorge Pereyra Diaz they have proven goalscorers that lift the onus off of Chhetri. It's no longer his job alone to get on the end of things. This is a team now that has raised both floor and ceiling considerably and it's already showing in the work of their captain.
In the post-match presser Zaragoza would continue to talk glowingly about his star man. "I don't know what to say more about Sunil Chhetri. He's too happy. He's always pushing me to play more and to train more... he's always pushing to win every single exercise." He talked about how Chhetri remains the biggest inspiration within his squad, how everybody looks up to him, and remains in awe of his single-minded commitment to the cause. "... he's Sunil Chhetri, what [more] to say?"
No one is getting carried away with this just yet, least of all Chhetri. After the match, he would tell the ISL, "Once the season ends, we'll see how many goals I'll get. But for now, three points" -- and that's what the focus will be on for player and club. The signs, though, are there, and it'd be smart for everyone else in the ISL to pay heed: Sunil Chhetri seems to be back.