Baichung Bhutia

Baichung Bhutia (* December 15 1976 in Tinkitam, Sikkim ) is an Indian footballer and former national player. The striker is regarded as one of the best players that has brought the country.

He began his career at the age of ten, when he played for the Tashi Namgyal Academy in Gangtok. At age 16, he left Sikkim and began his career at East Bengal Club in Kolkata, for whom he played from 1993 to 1995. After two successful years at the JCT Mills in Phagwara by winning the championship and top scorer in 1996/97 Bhutia came back in 1997 back to East Bengal, where he spent another two years.

In 1999 he finally moved to FC Bury in the third English league. In England, however, he was able in three years only 37 games contest and achieve three goals. 2002 Bhutia returned to India, where he first played for Mohun Bagan (2002-2003) and again for East Bengal (2003-2006). After a short stay in Malaysia ( Perak ) Bhutia returned to Mohun Bagan. In the 2007 /08 season he played in the newly created I-League. 2009 saw Bhutia to big league rivals East Bengal Club, before he moved to United Sikkim in 2011, which he is part owner.

His debut in the Indian national football team gave Bhutia in 1995 and was with his goal against Uzbekistan during the Nehru Cup at age 19 the youngest scorer in India's national team. When Nehru Cup 2009, he played against Kyrgyzstan 's 100th in the national selection. With the national team he won the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008 and was voted the best player of the tournament. Meanwhile Bhutia has completed a total of 107 appearances for India and has achieved 43 results. With the friendly match 10 January 2012 against Bayern Munich Bhutia ended his career in the national team.

Bhutia is a convinced atheist. On 27 December 2004, he married his girlfriend Madhuri Tipnis in Sikkim. In 2008, Bhutia made ​​headlines because he refused out of sympathy for the independence movement of Tibetans to carry the torch during the Olympic torch run.