The Ronaldo of Bhutan
He has the same swagger as Cristiano Ronaldo; he even has the same hairstyle and the same shirt number as his idol. And like the Portuguese striker, he is the most valuable player of his side.
Chencho Gyeltshen may not still be a household name for football aficionados around the world, but the Bhutan number 7 has already carved a place in the South Asian football map. The baby-faced striker had led the tiny Himalayan kingdom to an unthinkable two-legged victory over Sri Lanka earlier this year and thereby secured a passage to the second round of the World Cup qualifiers.
The impact of that victory, where Chencho scored a brace in the second leg at home, made a massive impact in Bhutan. The country leaped 46 places in the subsequent month's FIFA ranking from the foot of the table, overtaking many of its superior neighbours, and football started competing with archery as people's game, with Chencho becoming a sensation.
“Scoring two goals against Sri Lanka and taking the team to the World Cup qualifiers was a special moment for me and the whole team,” Chencho says during a conversation at the Taj Hotel in Trivandrum. “You know people in Bhutan used to underestimate us. But the win started to change things around. They follow us more now and feel proud of us.”
It was not only his countrymen, but also other teams who underestimated Bhutan over the years despite their gradual rise in the South Asian football map. A Sri Lanka player had in fact described the fixtures against Bhutan as a waste. Did that statement make Chencho more resolute?
“I don't know,” he says. “We didn't celebrate the away [1-0] victory because we knew we had one game left and we could have lost that game. So we kept our celebrations in check and prepared mentally for the home match.”
While that match literally changed Chencho's life, the path to his stardom started quite a few years earlier. He got his first call up to the senior team at the tender age of 15 and scored against Nepal on debut. He went on to score in the SAFF championship that same year before repeating the feat in the next edition. His talent didn't go unnoticed as Thai Premier League outfit Buriram United poached him in 2014, making him the first Bhutanese player to play in a foreign league.
It's his playing style which started drawing comparisons with Ronaldo, someone whom Chencho idolises not only as a footballer but also as a human being.
“Ronaldo is my idol. I like everything about him -- his playing style and his attitude,” Chencho says as his eyes light up with a childlike enthusiasm. “I've been a fan of Ronaldo ever since I watched a documentary on him. And I want to say that Ronaldo is not at all arrogant as some people make him out to be.”
As a footnote, Chencho's favourite club is Manchester United and his favourite team is Portugal.
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