Qian Jiegei Alisangte Endubu (;

né The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Alexander N'Doumbou; born 4 January 1992) is a Gabonese 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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

club Zhejiang FC. He formerly represented the

Gabon national football team The Gabon national football team ( French: ''Équipe de football du Gabon'') represents Gabon in men's international football. The team's nickname is The Panthers and it is governed by the Gabonese Football Federation. They have never qualifie ...

before giving up his Gabonese citizenship to receive the Chinese passport in 2019.

Club career

N'Doumbou began his football career at

Division 1 Division 1 or Division One may refer to: Association football * Azadegan League, the second-tier professional football league in Iran * Brisbane Premier League Division 1, the second-tier professional football league in Brisbane, Queensland, Austr ...

Gabonese club AS Sogara's youth team. At the age of 12, N'Doumbou departed the country for France to join local club FC Carpentras in the

south of France Southern France, also known as the south of France or colloquially in French as , is a geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', Atlas e ...

. He later had a stint at

Martigues Martigues ( in classical norm, ''Lou Martegue'' in Mistralian norm) is a commune northwest of Marseille. It is part of the Bouches-du-Rhône department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the eastern end of the Canal de Caronte. A ...

before joining Marseille on a trial. After having a successful trial, N'Doumbou was offered an ''aspirant'' (youth) contract. While in the club's youth academy, he was captain of the Marseille under-17 team that won the 2008–09 Championnat National Under-17 league title. On 18 November 2009, N'Doumbou signed his first professional contract. The contract took effect on 1 July 2011 as the player had to play out the two years left on his ''élite'' contract. N'Doumbou made his professional debut on 9 January 2010, five days after his 18th birthday, in a

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

match against amateur club Trélissac in a 2–0 victory. On 10 August 2011, N'Doumbou joined

Orléans Orléans (,"Orleans"
(US) and FCV Dender EH Football Club Verbroedering Dender Eendracht Hekelgem, also simply known as Dender or F.C.V. Dender, is a Belgian professional football club based in Denderleeuw. The club plays the 2024–25 season in the Belgian top division, the Pro League, ...

. In July 2018, N'Doumbou moved to Bulgarian first division club

FC Vereya Vereya () is a Bulgarian association football club based in Stara Zagora, which currently competes in the Southeast Third League, the third tier of Bulgarian football. Vereya was founded in 2001. The team made a remarkable rise through the lev ...

. N'Doumbou resumed his Chinese nationality and joined

side Shanghai Greenland Shenhua in February 2019. N'Doumbou lifted the CFA Cup with Shanghai Greenland Shenhua on 6 December 2019. After four seasons in Shanghai he would move to another Chinese Super League club in

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

on 17 January 2023.

International career

N'Doumbou played for the Gabon national team, earning his first call-up to the team by former coach

Alain Giresse Alain Jean Giresse (; born 2 August 1952) is a French association football, football coach and former player who last managed Kosovo national football team, Kosovo. Giresse was French Player of the Year in 1982, 1983 and 1987. Nominally an Midfi ...

in November 2009. He competed for Gabon at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. In February 2019, he renounced his Gabonese citizenship to apply Chinese nationality. Given that N'Doumbou appeared in official matches for Gabon, however, he will not be eligible to represent the China national team.

Personal life

N'Doumbou was born in

Port-Gentil Port-Gentil () or Mandji is the second-largest city of Gabon, and it is a leading seaport. It is the center of Gabon's petroleum and timber industries. The city is located on a delta island in the Ogooue delta. Nearby Cape Lopez is Gabon's weste ...

to a Gabonese father and a Chinese

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka-speaking Chinese, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas, are a southern Han Chinese subgroup whose principal settlements and ancestral homes are dispersed widely across the provinces of southern China ...

mother. His parents met in China where his father was attending school.

Career statistics

Honours

Shanghai Shenhua *

Chinese FA Cup The Chinese FA Cup (, abbreviated as CFA Cup) is the national knockout cup competition in China organized by the Chinese Football Association. The current holders are Shanghai Port, having beaten Shandong Taishan in 2024 for their first title. H ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

External links

*
Alexander N'Doumbou profile
at om.net (archived) * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:N'doumbou, Alexander 1992 births Living people Gabonese men's footballers Gabon men's international footballers Chinese men's footballers Gabonese people of Chinese descent Chinese people of Gabonese descent Sportspeople of Gabonese descent Olympic footballers for Gabon Olympique de Marseille players FC Vereya players Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Chinese Super League players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Footballers at the 2012 Summer Olympics 2015 Africa Cup of Nations players Gabonese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Gabonese expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Sportspeople of Chinese descent Men's association football midfielders People from Ogooué-Maritime Province Naturalized citizens of the People's Republic of China Naturalised association football players