PEOPLE WHO UNDERSTAND FOOTBALL KNOW THERE’S NO COMPARISON BETWEEN ME AND MESSI: CHHETRI

India captain Sunil Chhetri on Wednesday said people who understand the sport of football know there is no comparison between him and Argentina striker Lionel Messi.Chhetri had added another feather to his illustrious cap as he overtook Messi to become the second-highest active international goalscorer on Monday. He achieved the feat when he struck a brace to help India defeat Bangladesh 2-0 at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium at Al Sadd Club in Doha. “It is people having their opinion and it is fine because people will have opinions. If you want to know my take on it, the fact is that there is no comparison whatsoever, forget between me and Messi, but between me and any player in that whole category. There are 1000 players who are better than me and all those 1000 are fans of Messi. That’s the reality. People who understand football know that there is no comparison.“I have pretty good knowledge of football so I know there is no comparison. What I am proud of is that I have played more than 100 matches for the country,” said Chhetri.“My advice to anybody who sees that goal scoring chart, my advice to them would be happy for five seconds, but that is about it. There is no comparison between me and Messi, the whole world is a fan of Messi, but anybody there in the list, there is no comparison, and that’s the truth,” he added.When asked how he still manages to stay so passionate about the sport, Chhetri said: “There are many ways I can answer that, but the one I choose today, if I give you the national team jersey tomorrow and ask you to give your best for the country, you are going to do that my friend. What keeps me going, is that I wear the national team jersey. There are 1.4 billion people in the country and I am one of the players who represents the country. Some days I am going to convert the goals, some days I am going to miss. I am trying to do my best and that is the bare minimum I can do. Playing for your country is not that difficult, probably reaching there is.”