Bengaluru FC was founded in 2013 and Sunil Chhetri has been a vital cog in the club's journey towards top-tier success. The captain of the team has led from the front by being the team's top scorer in each of the last four seasons.
But for the first time, The Blues are treated to a race for the club's top scorer's gong in domestic competitions.
In the summer of 2017, the club roped in Venezuelan striker Miku to the fold as they made the switch to the Indian Super League (ISL) from the I-League. The debut season saw the club ending the ISL as runners-up and thereafter booking their place in the semi-final of the inaugural edition of the Super Cup. And much of the credit should go to a potent strikeforce involving Chhetri and Miku.
Miku wasn't registered in the squad for AFC Cup and Sunil Chhetri has also played very little in the continental cup competition due to Albert Roca's choice to rotate his squad heavily for the usually mid-week fixtures. But domestically, these two forwards have banged goals in or fun.
Together, they have scored 29 goals out of the club's 40 goals (72.5%) in the ISL and that shows how important the pair has been this season. In the 2017/18 ISL, Sunil Chhetri netted 14 goals and Miku bettered him by a goal to finish the club's top scorer in the league with 15 goals, just three less than Golden Boot winner Ferran Corominas.
In the ongoing Super Cup, Miku bailed Bengaluru out against Gokulam Kerala in the round-of-16 by scoring a goal and creating another for Udanta Singh. And that means the forward has now scored 16 goals for his team so far.
Just when it looked like the race is done and dusted, Sunil Chhetri scored a terrific hat-trick against NEROCA FC in the quarter-final on Friday to take his tally to 17 goals. As it stands, the skipper is winning the race.
The two immensely talented players have at most two matches to compete. Will Sunil Chhetri end up the club's top scorer for the fifth time in a row? Miku might have something to say about that!