As of 14 October 2021, which Indian footballer was in the news for breaking Pele's 77 international goals?

Correct — D. Sunil Chhetri, India's captain and record international goalscorer, is the player the October 2021 coverage measured against Pele's 77 goals for Brazil.

He was playing the SAFF Championship in the Maldives at the time, a tournament India went on to win. Option (d) is the one name in this list with an international scoring record of that size; the other three are a goalkeeper, a defender and a forward from an earlier generation.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Gurpreet Singh Sandhu — Sandhu is a goalkeeper — India's first-choice keeper of that period. Keepers do not build international goal tallies, so he cannot be the player set beside Pele's 77.
• (b)
  Bhaichung Bhutia — Bhaichung Bhutia captained India and led its attack before Chhetri, but he had retired from international football years before 2021, so he was not the player in the news.
• (c)
  Sandesh Jhingan — Sandesh Jhingan is a centre-back, picked for defending. He was in India squads of that period, but a defender carries no scoring record to compare with Pele's.

This item is a name-to-record pairing: one player, one sport, one number attached to them.

Chhetri's number is his international goal tally for India, which passed Pele's 77 during 2021 and put him among the highest-scoring active internationals in world football at the time. The comparison is with Pele's record for Brazil, not with a club figure.

Learn the pairing, not the fixture list: the name, the sport and the figure attached to it are what the option list turns on.

Key facts

• Sunil Chhetri is India's record international goalscorer and long-serving national captain.
• Pele's tally of 77 international goals for Brazil is the mark the 2021 coverage used.
• India won the 2021 SAFF Championship, played in the Maldives.
• Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, one of the options, is a goalkeeper rather than a scorer.

Common traps

• Reading 'Pele's 77' as a club record rather than his goals for Brazil.
• Picking Bhaichung Bhutia because his is the older and more familiar name.
• Assuming any footballer in the options could hold a scoring record, goalkeeper included.

No directly related past PYQ was found.