Sabitra Bhandari


Sabitra Bhandari, popularly known as Samba, is a Nepalese professional footballer who plays as a striker for A-League Women club Wellington Phoenix and captains the Nepal national team.
She is the all-time highest goal scorer in Nepalese football history and broke record as the highest female goalscorer in South Asia, with 53 goals. She made history by being the first Nepalese player to play and score in top tier European league. She is also the first ever South Asian player to score a hat-trick in a top tier European league.

Career

At club level, Bhandari played for APF Club. Bhandari made into Nepal national team for the 2014 South Asian Football Federation Championship and made her international debut against Bhutan, coming off the bench and sealing an 8–0 victory as a 17-year-old.

Sethu FC

She joined Indian Women's League side Sethu FC for the 2018-19 Indian Women's League season. In her debut match she scored 4 goals for the club against Manipur Police Sports Club on 6 May 2019. She was also awarded with women of the match in her first match with Sethu FC.
She scored in average of two goals a game during her time in India, leading Sethu FC to winning Indian Women's League title.

Gokulam Kerala FC

Bhandari joined Gokulam Kerala FC for the 2019–2020 season, and eventually won the League championship title and was the league top scorer with 16 goals.
After joining Gokulam Kerala FC again for the 2023 season, she continued her phenomenal prolificacy, managing league top scorer 31 goals, including five hat-tricks, to fire her club to league glory. This lead her to lifting her third Indian Women's League trophy.

Hapoel Ra'anana

In June 2023, Bhandari joined Israeli club Hapoel Ra'anana with the announcement receiving over 800 comments and thousands of views while the Israeli embassy in Kathmandu invited her to congratulate her personally. Bhandari made her club debut in August, playing in a cup match against Maccabi Kishronot Hadera, scoring a 90th minute goal in a 2–0 win. She opened the 2024–25 Ligat Nashim season well, scoring all 4 goals in a 4–0 victory over Ramat HaSharon. She also scored in her second match, a 1–1 draw against Hapoel Petah Tikva. Afterwards she scored an injury time equaliser against last season's runner-up Hapoel Katamon Jerusalem. Following the October 7 attacks, Bhandari's spell was cut short after scoring six goals in four league games as well as one goal in three cup matches.

En Avant Guingamp

She made her debut on Feb 3rd, 2024 coming as a substitute on 78th minute. She scored her first goal against Lille OSC on March 2, 2024.In her first season, she scored 1 goal in 10 games for Guingamp.
In 2024–25 season, she scored 6 goals in 19 games making her Guingamp's top goal scorer for 2024–25 season. On March 21, 2025, Bhandari scored brace against Paris Saint-Germain FC. She also scored hattrick against AS Saint-Étienne making her first ever Nepalese and South Asian player to score hattrick in top tier league in Europe.

Wellington Phoenix

In July 2025, Wellington Phoenix announced the signing of Bhandari on a two-year contract. On 20 December 2025, Sabitra Bhandari scored two goals and provided one assist for Wellington Phoenix in a league match against Sydney FC in the . The match marked her fourth appearance for the club, during which she found the net for the first time. With this performance, Bhandari became the first Nepali footballer to score in the A-League Women.

International career

Bhandari represents Nepal at the international level. She participated in and even scored a goal against Bhutan at the 2014 SAFF Women's Championship. She represented the country during the 2016 South Asian Games where she scored two goals against Sri Lanka. She scored the only goal in a friendly victory against Malaysia on 17 December 2016.
Bhandari then played in Nepal's first match of the 2016 SAFF Women's Championship against Bhutan. She scored six goals as Nepal won 8–0 to open the tournament and scored 5 goals against Maldives in the 2nd group match.

Honours

Sethu FC
Gokulam Kerala
Individual