Puma set to sign Sunil Chhetri

MUMBAI: On a day when the Indian football head coach Igor Stimac called captain Sunil Chhetri a ‘once in a decade player’, it also emerged that sports shoe and apparel manufacturer Puma is all set to strike a deal with the player.
After cricketer Virat Kohli and boxer Mary Kom, Chhetri is set to become Puma’s third signing. The deal, it is learnt, is on the table and could be announced this week.
At 35, while Chhetri is not getting any younger, he has turned out to be the driving force in Indian football, be it on the field or off it.“Look at the tweet he sent out last year. December, was it? Pleading with fans to come and watch the game. It was sensational. It showed the kind of connect he could build up with the fans with just one social message. That’s phenomenal,” an industry executive said.
With 1.6m Twitter followers, Chhetri is clearly the reigning superstar of Indian football and is expected to lead from the front under Stimac’s coaching for another two years. TOI understands that Puma and Chhetri were closing in on a two-year deal but it could not be independently ascertained.