Bambang Pamungkas is an Indonesian footballer who currently plays for Persija Jakarta in the Indonesian Super League and the Indonesia national football team.His natural position is striker. Pamungkas made his name in South East Asian football when he scored the lone goal for Indonesia at the 2002 Tiger Cup semifinal against Malaysia, and he become top scorer in the tournament with 8 goals.[2] He is the most capped player and top scorer for Indonesia with 80 caps and 36 goals
Club career
Bambang starts his career in Persija, become top scorer and help the club win Liga Indonesia in 1999. Then in 2000, He join EHC Norad in the Dutch third Division. After only 4 month, he went back to Persija -the only club he ever played in his country-.
In 2005 he received an offer to play in the Malaysian Football League with Selangor FA. He completed the transfer to Malaysia along with national team-mate Elie Aiboy. In his first season in Malaysia, he won the Premier League Malaysia, FA Cup Malaysia, and Malaysia Cup and became the top-scorer with 23 goals in 24 matches in Malaysian Premier League with total of 42 goals in 4 competitions (Premier League Malaysia, FA Cup Malaysia, Malaysia Cup, AFC Cup).
In 2010, he had a trial at Wellington Phoenix FC but failed to secure a contract.
Bambang has scored over 125 goals in Liga Indonesia. But like Singaporean forward Indra Sahdan Daud, he lost his national place to Foreign-born talent
International career
Pamungkas start his international career with the Indonesian youth team in 1998. He won the top-scorer in Asian Cup U-19 Group V, collecting 7 goals in the process. He made international senior debut in 1999 in a friendly match against Lithuania, he scored 1 goal in his debut. Now with 36 goals, he is top scorer in the Indonesia national football team history.
He was participated in three AFC Asian Cup ie 2000,2004 and 2007. He scored a goal against Bahrain in the 2007 AFC Asian Cup in which his team won 2-1.
He was the top scorer in the 2002 Tiger Cup with 8 goals. However due to injury made him out of the Indonesian squad for the 2004 Tiger Cup.He scored 2 more goals in the 2008 AFF Suzuki Cup. One against Myanmar and one against Cambodia.
In 2010 AFF Suzuki Cup Pamungkas scored 2 goals in a match against Thailand, both of them from penalty kicks.[4] He has scored a total of 12 goals in the ASEAN Football Championship, this make him 5th place all time top scorer in ASEAN Football Championship history.
Personal life
Bambang is married to Tribuana Tungga Dewi and has 3 children, Salsa Alicia, Jane Abel and Syaura Abana. He has 6 siblings and he is the second youngest child out of 7 children.
Public Figure
As a public figure, Bambang Pamungkas is well known by starring in many product advertisement such as Biskuat, Ti Phone, Nike, Bodrex, and many more. He is the one of not many Indonesian Footballer who appeared in other scope except football.
