Baichung Bhutia looks forward to final Indian match against Bayern Munich

Baichung Bhutia is set to play one last time for the Indian national football team in his farewell match on Tuesday, January 10 in the Audi Football Summit against German Bundesliga giants FC Bayern Munich at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi.

For the 35 year old Baichung his international journey ends with this game, but he will still continue to play for his own club United Sikkim FC for another two/three years before retiring fully from active football.

For Baichung such a finale is a great honour and he said, "It is a tough finale for my international career as Bayern Munich is one of the best teams in European club football. But it is a challenge in which I want to succeed."

The Sikkimese striker started his international career in a 1995 Nehru Cup match against Uzbekistan and he would go on to score in that game, the youngest goal scorer for India at the time at the age of only 19. Baichung would go on to represented India in 107 international matches and score an impressive 43 goals.

Talking about his career Baichung said, "I just wanted to play for India. I would have never dreamt of playing 100 plus matches."

India defender Gouramangi Singh said, "Baichung is a legend in Indian football, a role model for us footballers and I am honoured to be part of his final match."

As his biggest achievement at international level Baichung rated the qualification (2008 AFC Challenge Cup triumph) and participation in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar, the first continental appearance by India in 27 years. But the tournament was also a big disappointment for Baichung as he only was able to play the final 12 minutes against South Korea due to a persistent injury and in August 2011 he then called it quits on his international career.

Baichung wanted to sign off by saying, "I want to thank Audi India, FC Bayern Munich and the All India Football Federation for organising such a farewell match for me!"


More information about the match and where to buy tickets online are available at www.audifootballsummit.in

The official Twitter account of the Audi Football Summit can be found under www.twitter.com/AudiFS2012 .