Tenzin Norbu (born 8 May 2001) is a Bhutanese professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

center-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for Australian club

Balga Balga (; ; ; ) was a medieval castle of the Teutonic Knights in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia. The castle ruins are located on the shore of the Vistula Lagoon, north of Mamonovo in the Pogranichny municipality of Bagrationovsky District, about so ...

and the Bhutan national team.

Early life

Norbu was born in Jampel village of

Thimphu District Thimphu District (Dzongkha: ཐིམ་ཕུ་རྫོང་ཁག་; Wylie transliteration, Wylie: ''Thim-phu rdzong-khag'') is a dzongkhag (district) of Bhutan. Thimphu is also the capital of Bhutan and the largest city in the whole kin ...

Bhutan Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in South Asia, in the Eastern Himalayas between China to the north and northwest and India to the south and southeast. With a population of over 727,145 and a territory of , ...

Club career

Thimphu City

Norbu represented

Thimphu City FC Thimphu City Football Club is a Bhutanese professional football club based in Thimphu that competes in the Bhutan Premier League, the top level of football in Bhutan. Founded in 2012, they qualified for the inaugural Bhutan National League in ...

in the

2021 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs The 2021 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs were played from 7 April to 15 August 2021. A total of seven teams competed in the qualifying play-offs to decide three of the 38 places in the group stage of the 2021 AFC Cup. Teams The following 7 teams, spli ...

against

Club Eagles Club Eagles, formerly known as Eagles Malé, is a sports club based in Malé, Maldives. It is best known for its football team. The team were promoted to Dhivehi League in 2006 and relegated back to the Second Division the next season. They w ...

from Maldives.

Balga SC

In 2024, he moved to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and began representing Balga SC in the Western Australia State League.

International career

Norbu represented the Bhutan U19 team at both the

2019 SAFF U-18 Championship The 2019 SAFF U-18 Championship was the third edition of the SAFF U-18 Championship, an international football competition for men's under-18 national teams organized by SAFF. The tournament was hosted by Nepal from September 20 to 29 September 20 ...

and 2020 AFC U-19 Championship qualifiers. On 25 March 2023, Norbu made his debut for the Bhutan national team against

Laos Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), is the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

in the 2023 Prime Minister's Three Nations Cup. On 28 March, he scored his first international goal against hosts

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

in a 1–1. Following his move to

, Norbu was dropped from the national squad. In March 2025, he was recalled to the team for the

2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification – third round The third round of 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification is played from 25 March 2025 to 31 March 2026. Format A total of 24 teams (3 best ranked losing teams from the first round + 18 third and fourth-placed teams from the second round + 3 winners f ...

Career statistics

International

International goals

''Scores and results list Bhutan's goal tally first.''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Norbu, Tenzin 2001 births Living people Bhutanese men's footballers Bhutan men's international footballers Bhutanese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Bhutan Premier League players Thimphu City FC players Men's association football defenders