The Namibia national football team represents

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

in men's international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and is controlled by the

Namibia Football Association The Namibia Football Association (NFA) is the governing body of football in Namibia. It was founded in 1990, and affiliated to FIFA and to CAF in 1992. It organizes the national football league and the national team. Its aim is to create a footb ...

. They have never qualified for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

but have made four appearances in the

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

. The team represents both

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

and

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football (CAF) is the administrative and controlling body for association football, beach soccer, and futsal in Africa. It was established on 8 February 1957 at the ''Grand Hotel'' in Khartoum, Sudan. At the FIFA Co ...

(CAF).

History

Namibia played its first international under the name South-West Africa on 16 May 1989 at home against neighbouring

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

and lost 1–0. On 23 March 1990, only two days after gaining independence from South Africa, they hosted neighbour

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

and lost 5–1. On 7 June, they lost a home friendly 2–1 to

Mauritius Mauritius, officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island country in the Indian Ocean, about off the southeastern coast of East Africa, east of Madagascar. It includes the main island (also called Mauritius), as well as Rodrigues, Ag ...

. Namibia's next contests were played in Lesotho, where they lost 2–0 to their hosts on 1 August 1992, but gained their first ever draw in a 2–2 tie against the same opposition the very next day. Namibia's first win came on 1 July 1994 in a 1–0 victory away over

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

in a friendly. On 17 May 1998, Namibia played their first match outside of Africa and against non-African opposition, losing 2–1 in a friendly in France against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

. Namibia has made four appearances in the

African Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations, commonly abbreviated as AFCON and officially known as the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, is the main biennial international men's association football competition in Africa. It is s ...

, winning the cup in 1990, then going out in the first round in their first three competitions and going out in the Round of 16 in their fourth competition. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

, Namibia lost to

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

4–3 and drew

3–3 before losing to

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

4–1. In

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, Namibia lost to

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

5–1 and to

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

1–0 but drew

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

1–1 in their last match. In

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 ...

, they lost all their group games scoring only a single goal. They lost to

1–0, and suffered the same loss to

before losing to

4–1. The most capped player of the Brave Warriors is defender

Denzil Denzil may refer to: People *Denzil Batchelor, British journalist and writer *Denzil Best, American jazz percussionist * Denzil Botus, Trinidadian pannist * Denzil Angus Carty, American Episcopal priest *Denzil Davies, British politician *Denzil D ...

with 83 caps while Daniel Lombe is the all-time top goal scorer with 16 goals. He reached this milestone in a 1–1 draw against Cameroon in the AFCON qualifiers at Yaoundé on 24 March 2023. Namibia reached the Round of 16 for the first time in the

2023 Africa Cup of Nations The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, known in short as the 2023 AFCON or CAN 2023 and for sponsor (commercial), sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, was the 34th edition of the biennial Africa Cup of Nations tournam ...

, where they lost 3–0 against

Results and fixtures

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

2024

2025

Coaching history

:Caretaker managers are listed in ''italics''. * Eric Muinjo (1992–1993) * Shepherd Murape (1994–1995) * Ruston Mogane (1997–1998) * Mlungisi Ngubane (1998) * Seth Boois (1998–1999) * Heinz-Peter Überjahn (1999) * Herman Katjiuongua (2000) * Lucky Richter (2000) *

Ted Dumitru Theodore "Ted" Dumitru (born Dumitru Teodorescu; 2 September 1939 – 26 May 2016) was a Romanian football manager who is best known for his time in South Africa. Dumitru was one of few coaches who have led South Africa's 'big three' clubs ...

(2000–2003) * '' Shepherd Murape'' (2004) * Ben Bamfuchile (2006–2007) * Arie Schans (2007–2008) *

Tom Saintfiet Tom Saintfiet (born 29 March 1973) is a Belgian football coach and former player. He is the current head coach of the Mali national team. He managed the Gambian national team from 2018 to 2024, earning a place in the top five list of best coa ...

(2008–2010) * Brian Isaacs (2010–2011) * Bernard Kaanjuka (2011–2013) * Roger Palmgren (2013) * Ricardo Mannetti (2013–2015) * Fillemon Kanalelo (2015) * Ricardo Mannetti (2015–2019) * '' Bobby Samaria'' (2019–2021) * Collin Benjamin (2022–present)

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up to the squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification – CAF Group H matches against and on 20 and 24 March 2025. ''Caps and goals correct as of 24 March 2025, after the match against

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...

.''

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up for Namibia in the last 12 months. ^DEC Player refused to join the team after the call-up.
^INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury.
^PRE Preliminary squad.
^RET Player has retired from international football.
^SUS Suspended from the national team.

Previous squads

;Africa Cup of Nations squads * 1998 African Cup of Nations squad * 2008 Africa Cup of Nations squad * 2019 Africa Cup of Nations squad * 2023 Africa Cup of Nations squad

Player records

:''Players in bold are still active with Namibia.''

Most appearances

Top goalscorers

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

Africa Cup of Nations

African Nations Championship

COSAFA Cup

Head-to-head record against other nations

''Updated on 24 March 2025 after match against ''

Honours

Regional

COSAFA Cup The COSAFA Cup (known fully as COSAFA Senior Challenge Cup) is an annual tournament for teams from Southern Africa organized by Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), inaugurated after the ban against the Republic of Sout ...

** Winners (1):

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

** Runners-up (4):

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Notes

References

External links

Namibia Football Association official website

Namibia
at CAF
Namibia
at

Kits
{{DEFAULTSORT:Namibia National Football Team African national association football teams