The Timor-Leste national Under-23 football team () represents

Timor-Leste Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

(formerly known as East Timor) in 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 ...

competitions in the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

Southeast Asian Games The Southeast Asian Games, commonly known as SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games are under the regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with sup ...

and any other under-23 international football tournaments. It is controlled by the

Federação de Futebol de Timor-Leste The Football Federation of Timor-Leste ( - FFTL) is the governing body of football in Timor-Leste. In 2016 Timor-Leste run their own league under supervision of and Secretary of State for Youth and Sport. The name of the league is ''Liga Fute ...

, the governing body of football in the country. Timor-Leste is currently one of the weakest teams in the world. They won their first match on 5 November 2011 against

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

, scoring 2–1.Brunei U23 Vs East Timor U23 Result , World Sportsholic
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History

Football was firstly introduced during

Portuguese Timor Portuguese Timor () was a Portuguese colony on the territory of present-day East Timor from 1702 until 1975. During most of this period, Portugal shared the island of Timor with the Dutch East Indies. The first Europeans to arrive in the regio ...

era where many local and the Portuguese colonial official played the sport for enjoyment. After the Portuguese leave the eastern part of the island of

Timor Timor (, , ) is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is Indonesia–Timor-Leste border, divided between the sovereign states of Timor-Leste in the eastern part and Indonesia in the ...

, neighbouring Indonesia invaded and change their culture and identity. Timor-Leste gained full independence in 2002 after more than 20 years of occupation which resulted in a long running battle against

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

-led forces. The Timor-Leste U-23 team was invited to the 2005 AFF U-23 Youth Championship without any success, which is the first time that the team played in an international tournament. In 2009, the team entered the first

. Once again, they lost every match, including a 0–11 loss to

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. Timor-Leste had major improvements at the 2011 SEA Games, when they used overseas players of Timorese descent from

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. These players contributed a lot to their successful run; especially from Murilo de Almeida who managed to score three goals. The team finished third in their group by recording their first win in their history, finishing above Laos, Brunei and the Philippines and had a goal difference of –4, which was a big improvement compared to their previous participation where the team finished last in their group with no wins from four games, scoring only once and having a goal difference of –28.

Kits

Timor-Leste's traditional home kit includes a red shirt, black shorts and red or black socks. The away kits feature white or yellow shirts. At the 2009 SEA Games, their home kit resemble the one worn by the Belgium national team.

Kit evolution

Stadium

* Timor-Leste National Stadium (2002–present)

Competitive record

Olympic Games

Asian Games Record

''(Under-23 Team since 2002)''

AFC U-23 Asian Cup Record

SEA Games Record

''(Under-23 Team since 2001)''

ASEAN U-23 Championship record

Coaching staff

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for training for 2025 ASEAN U-23 Championship.

Recent call-ups

;Notes *^INJ Withdrew due to injury *^PRE Preliminary squad / standby

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.

2025

List of coaches

References

External links

Profile at FIFA.com

Profile at the-AFC.com

Profile at AFF Site
{{National sports teams of Timor-Leste u23 Asian national under-23 association football teams