| Thanabalan Nadarajah | |
| Fullname: | Thanabalan a/l Nadarajah |
| Birth Place: | Brickfields, Selangor, British Malaya |
| Position: | Striker |
| Years1: | 1960–1971 |
| Clubs1: | Selangor |
| Nationalyears1: | 1960–1963 |
| Nationalteam1: | Malaya U-20 |
| Nationalyears2: | 1964–1969 |
| Nationalteam2: | Malaysia |
| Nationalcaps2: | 46 |
| Nationalgoals2: | 20 |
Thanabalan a/l Nadarajah (born in 1943) was a Malaysian former footballer. He is remembered for his contribution during the Merdeka Tournament in 1968. Malaysia won the trophy by beating Burma 3–0 in the final. Thanabalan scored one of the three goals.[1] Thanabalan scored 20 international goals in 46 appearances for Malaysia.[2] [3]
As a player, he mainly played for Selangor FA in the Malaysia Cup competition. He together with the late Abdul Ghani Minhat, M. Chandran and Abdullah Yeop Noordin among the squad players that helped Selangor to become runners-up in the 1967 Asian Champion Club Tournament.[4]
He was also one of the three players who had scored four goals in a Malaysia Cup final after Lee Ah Loke(1952) and Abdul Ghani Minhat(1963) in 1968.[5]
On 23 September 2011, he was awarded the special award by Ex-State & Ex-National Footballers Association of Malaysia for being a top scorer in the final of the Malaysia Cup competition.[6]
In 2013, he was inducted in Olympic Council of Malaysia's Hall of Fame.[7]
Scores and results list Malaysia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Thanabalan goal.
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | — | 5-2 | 1964 Merdeka Tournament | |||
| 2 | Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia | — | 3-3 | 1965 Merdeka Tournament | |||
| 3 | — | ||||||
| 4 | — | ||||||
| 5 | Bangkok, Thailand | — | 1-2 | 1966 Asian Games | |||
| 6 | Hong Kong | — | 1-3 | 1968 AFC Asian Cup qualification | |||
| 7 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | — | 3-0 | 1967 Merdeka Tournament | |||
| 8 | — | ||||||
| 9 | — | 1-0 | 1967 Merdeka Tournament | ||||
| 10 | — | 1-3 | 1967 Merdeka Tournament | ||||
| 11 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia | — | 2-8 | ||||
| 12 | — | 2-1 | 1968 Merdeka Tournament | ||||
| 13 | — | 4-0 | 1968 Merdeka Tournament | ||||
| 14 | — | ||||||
| 15 | — | 4-1 | 1968 Merdeka Tournament | ||||
| 16 | — | 1-1 | 1968 Merdeka Tournament | ||||
| 17 | — | 3-0 | 1968 Merdeka Tournament | ||||
| 18 | Bangkok, Thailand | — | 5-0 | 1968 King's Cup | |||
| 19 | — | ||||||
| 20 | — | 2-1 | 1969 SEAP Games | ||||