'We don't win medals..'- Sunil Chhetri gives realistic bold opinion on India's less numbers in Olympic medals

Legendary Indian football player Sunil Chhetri is not afraid to voice his thoughts about the nation's sports culture. When challenged earlier regarding India's lack of achievements at the Olympic Games—the country's best-ever total of seven medals from the Tokyo Games—Chhetri did not hold back. 

With an estimated population of 1.5 billion, Chhetri outlined the reasons for India's lack of medals in the last Olympic Games in Paris, where the country hopes to perform better this time around. 

Chhetri claimed in a podcast that India's inability to recognize and develop talent at the local level is the reason the country doesn't succeed in winning gold in international competitions.

He said, "We don't win medals (at the Olympics) despite a population of 1.5 billion is not factually correct because we are not able to identify and nurture the talent of 1.5 billion people. China, US, Germany, Japan, Australia, Canada -- the ones who do well in the Olympics -- are miles better than us."

A nation of roughly 1.5 billion people ought to be able to generate more potential, and Chhetri believes that while talent exists in India, not enough attention is paid to developing it in order to advance it.

The Bengaluru FC striker said that, "When people say, 'talent ki kami nahi hai hamari country mei' (there is no dearth of talent in our country), it is 100 percent right. A five-year-old kid in Andaman, who was good in football or javelin throw or cricket, he didn't even know. Threw it once or twice and then disappeared, working in a call centre."

“I don't care if people want to kill me for this” : Sunil Chhetri

The former captain of the Indian football team declared that he would speak the truth even if it meant being killed.

The former Team India attacker concluded by saying that, "In identifying the talent and nurturing the talent at the right time and with the right procedure, we are way behind. And I don't care if people want to kill me for this; this is the reality."