New Delhi, Feb. 20 -- During his two-decade-long career, Sunil Chhetri would have witnessed the many highs and lows of Indian football, though nothing quite like what has unravelled over the past 12 months.

He stepped out of retirement in 2025 to rally the national team, only for India to get knocked out of the AFC Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers without a win in a group that featured lower-ranked opposition. He then stared at the prospect of the country's top flight tournament, the Indian Super League (ISL), getting cancelled, even putting out a video appeal for Fifa to step in.

The league is finally underway, but the 41-year-old now has to deal with the additional workload of a truncated season, where his club, Bengaluru FC, have managed to...