France
Nickname(s)	Les Bleus (The Blues)
Association	French Football Federation (Fédération Française de Football)
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Raymond Domenech
Captain	Patrick Vieira
Most caps	Lilian Thuram (140)
Top scorer	Thierry Henry (44)
Home stadium	Stade de France
FIFA code	FRA
FIFA ranking	7
Highest FIFA ranking	1 (May 2001-May 2002)
Lowest FIFA ranking	25 (April 1998)
Elo ranking	4
Highest Elo ranking	1 (December 1984-April 1985 August 1985 February-June 1986 July 1998-March 1999 June 2000-May 2002 September 2003-August 2004 August 2006-October 2006 February 2007 June 2007-July 2007)
Lowest Elo ranking	44 (May 1928 February 1930)
First international
Belgium 3 - 3 France (Brussels, Belgium; 1 May 1904)
Biggest win
France 10 - 0 Azerbaijan (Auxerre, France; 6 September 1995)
Biggest defeat
Denmark 17 - 1 France (London, England; 22 October 1908)
World Cup
Appearances	12 (First in 1930)
Best result	Winners, 1998
European Championship
Appearances	7 (First in 1960)
Best result	Winners, 1984 and 2000
Confederations Cup
Appearances	2 (First in 2001)
Best result	Winners, 2001 and 2003

Olympic medal record
Men's Football
Silver	1900 Paris
Gold	1984 Los Angeles

The French national football team represents the nation of France in international football. It is fielded by the French Football Federation and competes as a member of UEFA.

France was one of the four European teams that participated at the inaugural World Cup in 1930. Except for mild success in the 1950s, the French team was a modest competitor from its beginnings until the 1970s. In the 1980s, led by midfielder and captain Michel Platini, the team reached semi-finals at both the 1982 and 1986 World Cups, and won the 1984 European Championship.

France then reached an even higher status in international football by being especially successful at the end of the 1990s and in the 2000s; they won the World Cup as the host nation in 1998, and the European Football Championship two years later, while also placing second at the 2006 World Cup tournament. Midfielder Zinedine Zidane was particularly instrumental in achieving those honours.

France and Argentina are the only national teams in the world which have won the four most important titles organized by FIFA: World Cup, Gold medal in football in the Olympic Games, Confederations Cup, and the Continental Cup (Copa America for Argentina, and UEFA European Football Championship for France).

History

Early years

France's first ever game was a 3-3 draw against Belgium in 1904.

They played in all three of the pre-World War II World Cups. Lucien Laurent scored the first ever World cup goal in 1930, in a 4-1 win over Mexico. They reached the quarterfinals in 1938 when they hosted the World Cup.

France came third in the 1958 FIFA World Cup, defeating Germany 6-3 for the bronze. France was beaten by Brazil in semi-finals, after central defender Robert Jonquet's injury and Pelé hat-trick. Striker Just Fontaine scored a record 13 goals in the tournament, doing so in just six matches. The team used mainly players and former players from Stade de Reims, such as Raymond Kopa, Robert Jonquet, Edo Kumwembe,[Roger Marche]] or Just Fontaine, who was at the time one of the best teams in European football.

Platini era

During the captaincy of Michel Platini France's World Cup performance markedly improved, finishing fourth in Spain '82, and third in Mexico '86. In both tournaments, they lost in the semi-finals to West Germany. The 1982 semi-final is infamously remembered by many for West German keeper Harald Schumacher's elbowing of France's Patrick Battiston in the face as the latter made a shot on goal. Despite severely injuring Battiston, Schumacher was not penalized. France were also knocked out in the semi-final 1986 and with Platini, now recognized as one of football's all time greats they could have won. However, with Platini as skipper, France, as host nation, won Euro '84, as well as capturing Olympic gold in Los Angeles the same year.

Zidane era

France's most successful years were the late 1990s, the generation of Zinédine Zidane . This team started off well by reaching the semi-finals of Euro 96. After Euro 96, Jacquet adopted a very defensive strategy and made fans anxious because his team never seemed to develop a definitive offensive tactic. The press began to attack the team manager, calling his methods "Paleolithic" and claiming that the team had no hope for the upcoming World Cup which would be hosted in their home country. In June 1997 at the Tournament of France, cries of "Resign!" could be heard from the stadium as the French team came in under Brazil, England and Italy. The media's distrust of Jacquet reached fever pitch in May 1998 when, instead of a list of 22 players meant to play in the World Cup, Jacquet gave a list of 28 players, causing the sports daily L'Équipe to write an editoral arguing that Jacquet was not the right man to lead the French team to victory.

Euro 2000

Jacquet stepped down after France's World Cup triumph and was succeeded by assistant Roger Lemerre who guided them through Euro 2000. Zidane cemented his FIFA World Player of the Year form, scoring a direct free kick in the quarter-final against Spain and a golden goal penalty in the semi-final against Portugal.

In the finals, France defeated Italy 2-1 in a come from behind victory. David Trezeguet scored the golden goal in extra time after a controversial equalizing goal from Wiltord in the 5th minute of stoppage time. This gave them the distinction of being the first national team to hold both the World Cup and Euro titles since West Germany did so in 1974, and it was also the first time that a reigning World Cup winner went on to capture the Euro[1]. France held the top position in the FIFA World Rankings system from 2001-2002.

2002 World Cup and Euro 2004

France failed to maintain that pace in subsequent tournaments. They suffered a stunning goaless first round elimination in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, possibly due in part to an injury to key playmaker Zidane. One of the greatest shocks in World Cup history condemned France to a 0-1 defeat to debutante Senegal in the opening game of the tournament. After France had finished bottom of the group with only securing one point, conceding three goals and without scoring any, Lemerre was dismissed.

A full strength team started out strongly in Euro 2004, with Zidane scoring a free kick and a penalty to overcome a 0-1 deficit and defeat England in the group stage, but they were upset in the quarter-finals by the eventual winners, Greece. Jacques Santini resigned as coach and Raymond Domenech was picked as his replacement.

2006 World Cup

France struggled in the qualifiers for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, even though the team was seeded in a group that included the relatively unheralded teams of Israel, Switzerland and the Faroe Islands. This prompted Domenech to persuade "golden generation" members Claude Makélélé, Lilian Thuram and Zinédine Zidane out of international retirement to help the national team qualify. This was France's first successful World Cup qualification since 1986 (France received automatic berths in 1998 and 2002, as hosts and defending champions, respectively).

The team was greeted with modest expectations as it entered the World Cup tournament, with many arguing that despite the return of the three stars, its squad was too old to be competitive. They had a slow start in the group stage and were in danger of being eliminated after managing only 0-0 and 1-1 draws against Switzerland and South Korea, respectively. Though Zidane was forced to sit out because of accumulated bookings, France found their form and won their final group match, beating Togo 2-0 to advance to the knockout round. There, Zidane would score or assist in every game of the playoffs and his team upset heavily favoured Spain 3-1 in a come-from-behind victory to advance to the quarter-finals.

France eliminated Ludovic Giuly's team-mate [Ronaldinho], defending champions Brazil 1-0 to advance into the cup semi-finals. Despite the score, France had thoroughly outplayed Brazil in the match, only facing one shot on goal, while Zidane created numerous scoring chances with his dribbles past Brazilian defenders and his free-kick to Thierry Henry resulting in the winning goal. The game made France the first team to have shut out the five-time champions in consecutive matches; Fabien Barthez was the keeper in both matches. Les Bleus now have a 2-1-1 all-time record against Brazil in World Cup finals play, having shut the Seleção out in the last three meetings (the 1986 match was decided 4-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw).

France emerged from the semi-finals winning 1-0 over Portugal. Henry was tripped inside the box and a penalty was awarded, which Zidane scored and it stood as the winning goal, as defender Lilian Thuram neutralized offensive threats from Portuguese stars Pauleta and Cristiano Ronaldo. At home, when news came of France's victory, there were mass celebrations at the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe.

France took on Italy in the final, but the teams were level at 1-1 at the end of normal time. With extra-time failing to produce a victor, penalty kicks were required to settle the match. Italy won the shoot-out 5-3 to be crowned 2006 World Champions. The tournaments Golden Ball Winner Zinédine Zidane (playing his last professional match) scored the opening goal of the final (becoming only the fourth player to score in two World Cup final games), but his accomplishments in the finals were marred by his sending off (becoming only the fourth player to be sent off in a world cup final) for violent conduct when he headbutted Marco Materazzi with only ten minutes until extra-time.

Euro 2008 Qualifiers

France started its qualifying round for Euro 2008 on September 2, 2006 by beating Georgia in Tbilisi 3-0.The goal scorers for this match were Malouda, Louis Saha and Malkhaz Asatiani (own goal). They then took on world champions Italy 3-1 in Paris on September 6, 2006 with Sidney Govou striking twice along with Henry, but suffered a huge upset when beaten 1-0 by Scotland on October 7, 2006, their first European Championship qualifying defeat since they lost 3-2 to Russia on June 5, 1999. On October 11, 2006, France defeated Faroe Islands by 5-0. All the French strikers that played in the match scored. Goals came from Louis Saha, Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka and 2 goals from the Juventus striker David Trezeguet. France beat Lithuania 1-0 on March 24, 2007 with Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka rescuing an injury hit French side by shooting a wonderful long range effort.The injuries suffered by France were Louis Saha, Thierry Henry, Frank Ribéry, Patrick Vieira,and David Trezeguet. France took on Ukraine on June 2, 2007 in Paris. Both team were hit by injuries with France missing Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry while Ukraine missed their world class striker Andriy Shevchenko.The game ended in a 2-0 victory with second half strikes from Franck Ribéry and Nicolas Anelka who scored his third goal in three matches. Then on June 6, 2007 France defeated Georgia in Auxerre by 1-0, with Samir Nasri scoring his first senior international goal. On September 8, 2007, in a much-anticipated rematch, France and Italy played to a 0-0 draw at the San Siro in Milan. Once again though, on September 12, 2007, France fell to Scotland and were defeated 1-0 after Landreau was caught off guard with a strike from Scotland's James McFadden adding another loss, but this time on their home (Parc des Princes) turf. On the October 12, 2007, their match with the Faroe Islands, was threatened to be postponed after bad weather kept their plane from landing in the Faroe Islands, they had to spend the night in Norway. The next day however on 13 October 2007, the match went ahead as planned, albeit around 30 minutes after scheduled kick-off time with France taking just 8 minutes to open up a 2-0 lead, the match eventually finished 6-0 with strikes from Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry, and 2 goals from Karim Benzema just before half time. In the second half Jerome Rothen and Hatem Ben Arfa completed the rout. With Italy's victory over Scotland on November 17, 2007, France only just, by 2 points over Scotland, qualified for Euro 2008.

2010 FIFA World Cup Qualification

Team France Romania Serbia Lithuania Austria Faroe Islands

Representing multicultural France

On the 2006 French national team, 17 of the 23 players were members of racial minorities, including many of the most prominent players. The team featured players from the overseas departments and players who are themselves immigrants or the children of immigrants from former French colonial territories. Zinédine Zidane is the child of an immigrant couple from Algeria,now Karim Benzema and Samir Nasri are from the French Algerian people. Vikash Dhorasoo — the first French player of Indian origin - played in the 2006 World Cup. Meanwhile, several players are of African or West Indian origin. Patrick Vieira immigrated as a child from Senegal, Bafétimbi Gomis has double French-Senegalese nationality, and Claude Makélélé did likewise from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lilian Thuram is from France's overseas department of Guadeloupe. Thierry Henry is the son of parents born in Guadeloupe and Martinique, while Louis Saha, Sylvain Wiltord, and Pascal Chimbonda all have parents who hail from Guadeloupe. Finally, Florent Malouda was born in French Guiana.

The French national football team has long reflected the ethnic diversity of the country. The first black player playing in the national team was Raoul Diagne in 1931, the son of the first black African elected to the French National Assembly, Blaise Diagne. In the 1950s, the first French national team reaching international success with a semi-final at the World Cup 1958 already included many sons of immigrants such as Raymond Kopa, Roger Piantoni, Maryan Wisnieski or Bernard Chiarelli. This tradition continued through the 1980s, when such successful players as Michel Platini, Jean Tigana, Luis Fernandez, Gérard Janvion, Manuel Amoros or Eric Cantona were all of either foreign-born or overseas-born ancestries. Since the 1990s, the team has been widely celebrated as an example of the modern multicultural French ideal.

In recent years, critics on the far right of the French political spectrum have taken issue with the proportional underrepresentation of white Frenchmen on the team. National Front politician Jean-Marie Le Pen protested in 1998 that the Black, Blanc, Beur team that won the World Cup did not look sufficiently "French." In 2002, led by Ghanaian-born Marcel Desailly, the French team unanimously publicly appealled to the French voting public to reject the presidential candidacy of Le Pen and instead return President Jacques Chirac to office in a landslide. In 2006, Le Pen also resumed his criticism, charging that coach Raymond Domenech had selected too many black players.

In 2005, French philosopher Alain Finkielkraut caused a controversy by remarking to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that despite its earlier slogan, "the French national team is in fact black-black-black," adding "France is made fun of all around Europe because of that." He later excused himself for this comment, which he declared was not meant to be offensive.

In 2004, a television crew recorded Spanish coach Luis Aragonés motivating Thierry Henry's Arsenal teammate José Antonio Reyes by saying Demuestra que eres mejor que ese negro de mierda ("Show that you're better than that shitty black"). After an investigation, UEFA fined the RFEF and warned that future incidents would be punished more severely. Henry and Nike began a Stand Up Speak Up campaign against football racism as a result of the incident. Before the start of France's 2006 World Cup second round match against Spain, which France would win 3-1, coach Raymond Domenech claimed that Spanish fans were making racial taunts[2], this however was not proved.

The Zidane-Materazzi headbutt incident in the 2006 World Cup final and its aftermath served as a symbol for the larger issue of Europe's struggle to integrate its non-white immigrant population: Even though both players denied it, international media speculated for days about the presence of a racist element in the exchange, observing that the Italian team contained no ethnic minorities.

The national team's overall impact on France's efforts to integrate its minorities and come to terms with its colonial past has been mixed, however. In 2001, France played a friendly match in the Stade de France, site of its 1998 World Cup triumph, against Algeria. It was France's first meeting with its former colony, with whom it had fought a war from 1954-62, and it proved controversial. France's national anthem, La Marseillaise, was booed by Algerian supporters before the game, and following a French goal that made the score 4-1 in the second half, spectators ran onto the field of play and caused the game to be suspended. It was never resumed.

Competitive record

World Cup record

Year	Result	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Round 1	7	3	1	0	2	4	3
1934	Round of 16	9	1	0	0	1	2	3
1938	Quarterfinals	6	2	1	0	1	4	4
1950	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1954	Round 1	11	2	1	0	1	3	3
1958	Third Place	3	6	4	0	2	23	15
1962	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Round 1	13	3	0	1	2	2	5
1970	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1974	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1978	Round 1	12	3	1	0	2	5	5
1982	Fourth Place	4	7	3	2	2	16	12
1986	Third Place	3	7	4	2	1	12	6
1990	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1994	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1998	Champions	1	7	6	1	0	15	2
2002	Round 1	28	3	0	1	2	0	3
2006	Final	2	7	4	3	0	9	3
Total	12/18	1 Title	51	25	10	16	95	64

European Championship record

Year	Result	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1960	Semifinals	2	0	0	2	4	7
1964	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1968	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1972	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1976	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1980	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1984	Champions	5	5	0	0	14	4
1988	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1992	Round 1	3	0	2	1	2	3
1996	Semifinals	5	2	3	0	5	2
2000	Champions	6	5	0	1	13	7
2004	Quarterfinals	4	2	1	1	7	5
2008	Qualified
Total	7/13	25	14	6	5	45	28

Confederations Cup record

Year	Result	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1992	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1995	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1997	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1999	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-
2001	Champions	5	4	0	1	12	2
2003	Champions	5	5	0	0	12	3
2005	Did not qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2009
Total	2/7	10	9	0	1	24	5

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Current squad

23-man squad for the UEFA EURO 2008.

Caps and goals as of June 3, 2008.

Number	Name	DOB	Club	Caps (goals)
Goalkeepers
1	Steve Mandanda	March 28, 1985 (age 23)	Marseille	1 (0)
16	Sébastien Frey	March 18, 1980 (age 28)	Fiorentina	2 (0)
23	Grégory Coupet	December 31, 1972 (age 35)	Lyon	31 (0)
Defenders
2	Jean-Alain Boumsong	December 28, 1979 (age 28)	Lyon	23 (1)
3	Éric Abidal	July 11, 1979 (age 28)	Barcelona	35 (0)
5	William Gallas	August 17, 1977 (age 30)	Arsenal	62 (2)
13	Patrice Evra	May 15, 1981 (age 27)	Manchester United	11 (0)
14	François Clerc	April 18, 1983 (age 25)	Lyon	11 (0)
15	Lilian Thuram	January 1, 1972 (age 36)	Barcelona	140 (2)
17	Sébastien Squillaci	August 11, 1980 (age 27)	Lyon	13 (0)
19	Willy Sagnol	March 18, 1977 (age 31)	Bayern Munich	56 (0)
Midfielders
4	Patrick Vieira	June 23, 1976 (age 31)	Inter Milan	105 (6)
6	Claude Makélélé	February 18, 1973 (age 35)	Chelsea	68 (0)
7	Florent Malouda	June 13, 1980 (age 27)	Chelsea	39 (3)
10	Sidney Govou	July 27, 1979 (age 28)	Lyon	32 (7)
11	Samir Nasri	June 20, 1987 (age 20)	Marseille	10 (2)
20	Jérémy Toulalan	September 10, 1983 (age 24)	Lyon	13 (0)
21	Lassana Diarra	March 10, 1985 (age 23)	Portsmouth	13 (0)
22	Franck Ribéry	April 1, 1983 (age 25)	Bayern Munich	27 (4)
Strikers
8	Nicolas Anelka	March 14, 1979 (age 29)	Chelsea	48 (11)
9	Karim Benzema	December 19, 1987 (age 20)	Lyon	11 (3)
12	Thierry Henry	August 17, 1977 (age 30)	Barcelona	100 (44)
18	Bafetimbi Gomis	June 8, 1985 (age 22)	Saint-Étienne	2 (2)

Coaching staff

Head Coach	Raymond Domenech
Assistant Coach	Pierre Mankowski
Goalkeeping Coach	Bruno Martini

Players

Famous past players

Manuel Amoros Jocelyn Angloma Henri Bard Fabien Barthez Joël Bats Patrick Battiston Bruno Bellone Larbi Ben Barek Laurent Blanc Basile Boli Maxime Bossis Eric Cantona Marcel Desailly Didier Deschamps Jean Djorkaeff Youri Djorkaeff

Jean-Francois Domergue Christophe Dugarry Jean-Luc Ettori Luis Fernández Just Fontaine Bernard Genghini David Ginola Alain Giresse Ludovic Giuly Robert Herbin Robert Jonquet Raymond Kopa Bernard Lama Lucien Laurent Bixente Lizarazu Eugène Maës

Jean-Pierre Papin Emmanuel Petit Roger Piantoni Robert Pirès Michel Platini Dominique Rocheteau Didier Six Yannick Stopyra Jean Tigana Marius Trésor David Trézéguet Thierry Tusseau Jean Vincent Zinedine Zidane

Most capped French players

As of June 3, 2008, the ten players with the most caps for France are:

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Lilian Thuram*	1994 - Present	140	2
2	Marcel Desailly	1993 - 2004	116	3
3	Zinedine Zidane	1994 - 2006	108	31
4	Patrick Vieira*	1997 - Present	105	6
5	Didier Deschamps	1989 - 2000	103	4
6	Thierry Henry*	1997 - Present	100	44
7	Bixente Lizarazu	1992 - 2004	97	2
7	Laurent Blanc	1989 - 2000	97	16
9	Sylvain Wiltord*	1999 - 2006	92	26
10	Fabien Barthez	1994 - 2006	87	0

Members of the 1998 FIFA World Cup winning team are in bold.
* denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

Top France goalscorers

As of June 3, 2008 the highest ten goalscorers for France are:

#	Player	Career	Goals (Caps)
1	Thierry Henry*	1997 - Present	44 (100)
2	Michel Platini	1976 - 1987	41 (72)
3	David Trézéguet*	1998 - 2008	34 (71)
4	Zinedine Zidane	1994 - 2006	31 (108)
5	Just Fontaine	1953 - 1960	30 (21)
5	Jean-Pierre Papin	1986 - 1995	30 (54)
7	Youri Djorkaeff	1993 - 2002	28 (82)
8	Sylvain Wiltord*	1999 - 2006	26 (92)
9	Jean Vincent	1953 - 1961	22 (46)
10	Jean Nicolas	1933 - 1938	21 (25)

Members of the 1998 FIFA World Cup winning team are in bold.
* denotes a player still playing or available for selection.

Coaches

Before 1955, players were selected by committee.

Albert Batteux (1955-1962)
Henri Guérin (1962-1966)
José Arribas and Jean Snella (1966)
Just Fontaine (1967)
Louis Dugauguez (1967-1968)
Georges Boulogne (1969-1973)
Stefan Kovacs (1973-1975)
Michel Hidalgo (1976-1984)
Henri Michel (1984-1988)
Michel Platini (1988-1992)
Gérard Houllier (1992-1993)
Aimé Jacquet (1993-1998)
Roger Lemerre (1998-2002)
Jacques Santini (2002-2004)
Raymond Domenech (2004-present)

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Italy National Football Team
Nickname(s)	Azzurri
Association	Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (Italian Football Federation)
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Roberto Donadoni (2006-)
Captain	Gianluigi Buffon (currently) Fabio Cannavaro
Most caps	Paolo Maldini (126)
Top scorer	Luigi Riva (35)
FIFA code	ITA
FIFA ranking	3
Highest FIFA ranking	1 (November 1993 February 2007 April 2007-June 2007)
Lowest FIFA ranking	16 (April 1998)
Elo ranking	2
Highest Elo ranking	1 (June 1934-March 1940 December 1940-November 1945 July 2006-August 2006)
Lowest Elo ranking	21 (November 1959)
First international
Italy 6 - 2 France (Milan, Italy; 15 May 1910)
Biggest win
Italy 9 - 0 USA (Brentford, England; 2 August 1948)
Biggest defeat
Hungary 7 - 1 Italy (Budapest, Hungary; 6 April 1924)
World Cup
Appearances	16 (First in 1934)
Best result	Winners, 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006
European Championship
Appearances	6 (First in 1968)
Best result	Winners, 1968
Confederations Cup
Appearances	1 (First in 2009)
Best result	Qualified, 2009

Olympic medal record
Men's Football
Gold	1936 Berlin
Bronze	1928 Amsterdam
Bronze	2004 Athens

The Italian national football team (Nazionale italiana di calcio) is controlled by the Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio (FIGC) and represents Italy in international football competition. They are the current World Champions, having won the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Italy is among the top teams in international football and the second most successful national team having won four World Cups (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), just one fewer than Brazil. To this tally they can add one European championship (1968), two Central European International Cup and one Olympic Gold Medal (1936).

The traditional colour of the national team (as well as all Italian teams and athletes, except for motor sports which uses red) is azure blue (azzurro, in Italian), due to the "Azzurro Savoia" (Savoy Blue), the colour traditionally linked to the dynasty which unified Italy in 1860. Therefore national team members are nicknamed Azzurri.

History

Origins and first two World Cups (1910–1938)

Poster advertising the 1934 World Cup.

The team's first match was held in Milan on 15 May 1910; Italy defeated France by a score of 6-2.. Some turmoil kept the players of Pro Vercelli, the best team of the league, out of the game. At the end of the match, the players received as a prize some cigarette packets thrown by the 4,000 spectators. The Italian team (2-3-5): De Simoni; Varisco, Calì; Trerè, Fossati, Capello; Debernardi, Rizzi, Cevenini I, Lana, Boiocchi.

The first success in an official tournament came with the bronze medal in 1928 Summer Olympics, held in Amsterdam. After losing the semi-final against Uruguay, a victory for 11-3 against Egypt secured third place in the competition.

After declining to participate in the first World Cup (1930, in Uruguay), the Italian national team won two consecutive editions of the tournament in 1934 and 1938, under the lead of coach Vittorio Pozzo and thanks to the genius of Giuseppe Meazza, one of the best Italian players ever. Other stars of that era included Luis Monti, Giovanni Ferrari, Silvio Piola and Virginio Rosetta In the 1934 World Cup, the host Azzurri defeated Czechoslovakia 2–1 in Rome, with goals by Raimundo Orsi and Angelo Schiavio.

Italy won the Gold medal in the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in Berlin, thanks to a victory in the final match against Austria. Italy's predominance on international football in the 1930s was confirmed by the victory in 1938 World Cup. The Italian team beat Hungary 4–2 in Paris, with two goals by Silvio Piola (the all-time top scorer in Italian football) and two by Gino Colaussi.

Post-World War II (1946–1966)

After World War II, the Italian national team did not perform at its pre-war levels.

The tragic loss in 1949 of the players of Torino (the winners of the previous four Serie A titles) in the Superga air disaster saw the loss of ten out of the eleven constituting the initial line-up for the national team. The following year, Italy did not advance further than the first round of the 1950 World Cup, partly due to the long and physically devastating boat trip to Brazil (air travel was discarded due to fear of another accident).

In the World Cup finals of 1954 and the 1962 that followed, Italy again failed to progress past the first round, and did not even qualify for the 1958 World Cup. During the early 1960s, although Italian football clubs like AC Milan and Internazionale ruled the international scene, the National team was unable to replicate these results. Italy did not take part in the first edition of the European Championship in 1960 (then known as the European Nations Cup), and was knocked out by the USSR in the round of 16 (second round) of the 1964 European Championship.

Their participation in the 1966 World Cup is always remembered for their 0–1 defeat at the hands of North Korea. Despite being the tournament favourites, the Azzurri, whose 1966 squad was rich with talent including Rivera and Bulgarelli, were eliminated in the first round by the semi-professional North Koreans and bitterly condemned upon their return home, while North Korean scorer Pak Doo-Ik was celebrated as the David who killed Goliath..

European champions and World Cup runners-up (1968–1976)

In 1968, the Azzurri won their first major competition since the 1938 World Cup, defeating Yugoslavia in Rome for the European Championship title. The match holds the distinction of being the only major football tournament final to go to a replay. After extra time it ended in a 1-1 draw, and in the days before penalty shootouts, the rules required the match to be replayed a few days later. Italy won the replay 2-0 (with goals from Riva and Anastasi) to lift the trophy.

Two years later, the defending European Champions reached the final of the 1970 World Cup, held in Mexico. First, Italy won its first round group scoring only one goal, after a series of dull, uninspired games against Sweden, Uruguay, and Israel. The quarter-finals saw a transformed Italy prevail 4-1 over host Mexico after trailing 0-1. Then came the semifinal between Italy and West Germany which is remembered as one of the greatest games ever played. This match, won by Italy 4-3 after extra time, is known as the Game of the Century, and a marker at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City still commemorates it. Italy took a 1-0 lead through Boninsegna in the 8th minute, leaving Germany to press forward for the rest of the game. The score remained unchanged until the very end when sweeper Schnellinger, then with Italy's AC Milan, popped up unmarked in the penalty area to score in injury time. In extra time, Müller gave Germany the lead on 94' before defender Burgnich levelled the score with a rare international goal. On 104', Riva made it 3-2, only for Müller to equalize six minutes later with a glancing header. The TV cameras were still replaying this goal when Rivera met a Boninsegna cross with a first-time shot past Sepp Maier for the winning goal in the 111th minute. For the very first time, people gathered in the streets of Italy in the late night to cheer for the victory, and after many years this game still remains the best remembered in Italian football history.

In the two games against Mexico and West Germany, coach Ferruccio Valcareggi had Rivera replace Mazzola in a planned second half substitution, which was called staffetta (meaning relay as in athletics). This tactic was not repeated in the final, where Italy was defeated by Brazil. In the first half, Boninsegna answered Pelé's 18th minute goal to level the scores. In the second half, Brazil's firepower was simply too much for a tired Italian side, with Jairzinho, Gerson and Carlos Alberto each scoring. The final 4-1 result consecrated Brazil as tri-campeão (three-time champion).

This generation of great Italian players, like Riva, Rivera, Mazzola and Facchetti, did not keep up the same level of performance at the next 1972 European Championship where they did not reach the playoffs. In 1973 they achieved prestigious victories in friendly matches, beating Brazil once and England twice. In particular, Italy stormed Wembley Stadium, winning 1-0 with a goal by Fabio Capello. Despite these encouraging results, coach Valcareggi resigned after the Italian team's elimination in the first round of the 1974 World Cup. Italy was also eliminated at an early stage in 1976 European Championship.

World Cup winners for the third time (1978–1982)

The 1978 FIFA World Cup, held in Argentina, saw a new generation of Italian players, the most famous being Paolo Rossi, coming to the international stage. Italy played very well in the first round, being the only team in the tournament to beat the eventual champions and host team Argentina. Second round games against West Germany, Austria and Netherlands led Italy to the third place final, where it was defeated by Brazil 2-1. As in the match against the Netherlands, Italian goalkeeper Dino Zoff was beaten by a long-distance shot and thus blamed as the main culprit for the defeat. Italy then hosted the 1980 UEFA European Football Championship, the first edition to be held between eight teams instead of four, and with the host team automatically qualified for the finals. Italy was beaten by Czechoslovakia in the third place match on penalties.

After a scandal in Serie A where some National Team players such as Paolo Rossi were prosecuted and suspended for match fixing and illegal betting, the Azzurri arrived at the 1982 FIFA World Cup amidst general scepticism and discomfort. Italy qualified for the second round after three uninspiring draws against Poland, Peru and Cameroon. Having been loudly criticized, the Italian team decided on a press black-out from then on, with only coach Enzo Bearzot and captain Dino Zoff appointed to speak to the press.

Italy's strength finally showed in the second round group, a true Group of Death with Argentina and Brazil - the defending champions and the team favoured to dethrone them. In the opener, Italy prevailed 2-1 over Diego Maradona's side after an ill-tempered battle in which Italy's defenders and midfielders proved their mastery in the rougher side of the game. Italy's goals, both excellent left-footed strikes, were scored by Marco Tardelli and Antonio Cabrini. After Brazil defeated Argentina 3-1, Italy needed to win in order to advance to the semifinals. Twice Italy went in the lead with Paolo Rossi goals, and twice Brazil came back. When Paulo Roberto Falcão scored to make it 2-2 Brazil would have been through on goal difference; but in the 74th minute Rossi poked home the winning goal in a crowded penalty area to send Italy to the semifinals after one of the all-time greatest games in World Cup history. In the wake of its brilliant second round performance, Italy easily dispatched Poland in the first semi-final with another two goals from Rossi.

Tardelli's famous roar of joy after scoring against West Germany in the 1982 World Cup final.

In the final match, Italy met their traditional opponent West Germany, who had advanced thanks to a penalty shootout victory against France. The first half ended scoreless, after Cabrini missed a penalty awarded for a Hans-Peter Briegel foul on Bruno Conti. In the second half Paolo Rossi again scored the first goal, and while the Germans were pushing forward in search of an equaliser, Tardelli and substitute Alessandro Altobelli finalised two perfect contropiede counterattacks to make it 3-0. Paul Breitner smashed home West Germany's consolation goal seven minutes from the end, making him the second man after Pelé to score in two different World Cup finals.

Tardelli's scream after his goal in the final is still remembered as the symbol of Italy's 1982 World Cup triumph. Paolo Rossi won the Golden Boot with six goals, and 40-year-old captain-goalkeeper Dino Zoff became the oldest-ever player to win the World Cup.

World Cup and European Championship runners-up (1984–2004)

For twenty-four years following the 1982 triumph, the Azzurri figured prominently on the world stage but did not win another tournament. Italy failed to qualify for the 1984 European Championship and were knocked out in the Round of 16 of the 1986 World Cup by France. 1988 saw them reach the semifinals of the European Championship, where they were defeated 2-0 by the USSR.

Italy hosted the World Cup for the second time in 1990. The Italian attack featured talented forwards Salvatore Schillaci and a young Roberto Baggio. Despite being favourites to win and not conceding a goal in their first five matches, Italy lost in the semifinal to defending champion Argentina, losing 4-3 on penalty kicks following a 1-1 draw after extra time. Schillaci's first half opener having been equalised in the second half by Claudio Caniggia's header for Argentina. Aldo Serena missed the final penalty kick (with Roberto Donadoni also having his penalty saved by goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea). Italy went on to defeat England 2-1 in the third place match, with Schillaci scoring the winning goal on a penalty to become the tournament's top scorer with 6 goals. Italy then failed to qualify for the 1992 European Championship.

In the 1994 World Cup, Italy started very slowly but reached the final. They lost the opening match against Ireland 0-1, this being the only match Italy would lose (not counting games lost after shootout) over the span of three World Cup finals from 1990 to 1998 and one only of two games they have lost in regualar time since 1988 in either a Euro or World Cup (losing 2-1 to Czech Republic in the first round of Euro 1996 is the second one). After a gritty 1-0 win against Norway and a 1-1 draw with Mexico, Italy advanced from Group E based on goals scored among the four teams tied on points. In the Round of 16, Italy was down 0-1 late against Nigeria, but Roberto Baggio came to the rescue with a splended equaliser in the 88th minute and a penalty in extra time to snatch the win. Baggio scored another late goal against Spain in the quarter-final to seal a 2-1 win and two beautifully taken goals against Bulgaria in the semi-final for another 2-1 win. In the final, Italy and Brazil played 120 minutes of scoreless football, taking the match to penalty shootout. Italy lost the subsequent shootout 3-2 after Baggio missed the final penalty kick of the match, shooting over the crossbar.

Italy did not progress beyond the group stage at the finals of Euro 96. Gianfranco Zola failed to convert a decisive penalty against Germany, who eventually won the tournament. Then, during the qualifying campaign for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the Azzurri beat England at Wembley for the second time with Zola scoring the only goal. In the final tournament, Italy found themselves in another critical shootout for the third World Cup in a row. The Italian side, where Del Piero and Baggio renewed the controversial staffetta (relay) between Mazzola and Rivera from 1970, held the eventual World Champions and host team France to a 0-0 draw after extra time in the quarterfinals, but lost 4-3 in the shootout. With two goals scored in this tournament, Roberto Baggio is still the only Italian player to have scored in three different FIFA World Cup editions.

In the Euro 2000, another shootout was this time to favour Italy, in the semifinal against the co-hosts the Netherlands. Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo saved one penalty during the match and two in the shootout, while the Dutch players missed one other penalty during the match and one during the shootout with a rate of one penalty scored out of six attempts. Emerging star Francesco Totti scored his penalty with a very brave cucchiaio (spoon) chip. Italy finished the tournament as runners-up, unluckily losing the final 2–1 against France (to a golden goal in extra time) after conceding les Bleus' equalizing goal just 30 seconds before the expected end of injury time (94'). After the defeat, coach Dino Zoff resigned in protest after being criticized by A.C. Milan president and politician Silvio Berlusconi.

In the 2002 World Cup, Italy again had a difficult time. A comfortable 2-0 victory against Ecuador with two Christian Vieri goals was followed by a 2-1 defeat to Croatia, a match in which Italy had two goals bizarrely disallowed. A 1-1 draw with Mexico thanks to a goal from Alessandro Del Piero proved enough to advance to the knockout stages. However, co-host country South Korea knocked out Italy in the Round of 16, reviving the 1966 nightmare. The match was marked by controversy, as Ecuadorean referee Byron Moreno gave Francesco Totti a second yellow card in extra time for an alleged dive, and disallowed a goal in extra time by Damiano Tommasi. Replays seemed to indicate both that the card was unfounded and the goal was good, but the decisions stood and South Korea won 2-1, again with a golden goal in extra time. Subsequent comments by Italian coach Giovanni Trapattoni and some other public figures in Italy , coupled with more bad refereeing decisions in South Korea's subsequent quarterfinal against Spain (in which two Spanish goals were mysteriously disallowed) led to a conspiracy theory that South Korea were being unfairly favoured by officials. Even Sepp Blatter, FIFA president, recognized that several wrong or controversial decisions against the Azzurri had taken place during the course of the tournament, including Totti's yellow card, even though he rejected any conspiracy against the Italian team and indicated that inadequate refereeing standards were to blame.. Referee Byron Moreno was suspended and removed by his federation a few years later, due to similar unfair decisions in other local matches..

A three-way tie in the group stage of the 2004 European Championship left Italy as the "odd man out", and they failed to qualify for the quarterfinals after finishing behind Denmark and Sweden on the basis of number of goals scored in matches among the tied teams. The winning goal scored during stoppage time against Bulgaria by Antonio Cassano resulted useless, leaving the Italian striker in tears at the end of the game.

2006 World Cup: Champions for the fourth time

Italy's campaign in the 2006 World Cup hosted by Germany was accompanied by open pessimism due to the controversy caused by the 2006 Serie A scandal. These negative predictions were then refuted, as Azzurri eventually won their fourth World Cup.

Italy won their opening game against Ghana 2-0, with goals from Andrea Pirlo (40') and substitute Vincenzo Iaquinta (83'). The team performance was judged the best among the opening games by FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

The second match was a less convincing 1-1 draw with USA, with Alberto Gilardino's diving header equalized by a Cristian Zaccardo own goal. After the equalizer, midfielder Daniele De Rossi and the USA's Pablo Mastroeni and Eddie Pope were sent off, leaving only nineteen men on the field for nearly the entirety of the second half, but the score remained unchanged despite a controversial decision when Gennaro Gattuso's shot was deflected in but disallowed because of an offside. The same happened for the U.S. when Demarcus Beasley's goal was called offside. De Rossi was suspended for four matches for elbowing American player Brian McBride and could only return for the final match.

Italy finished first in Group E with a 2-0 win against the Czech Republic, with goals from defender Marco Materazzi (26') and striker Filippo Inzaghi (87'), advancing to the Round of 16 in the knockout stages, where they faced Australia. In this match, Materazzi was controversially sent off early in the second half (53') after a two footed tackle on Australian midfielder Marco Bresciano. In stoppage time a penalty kick was awarded to the Italians after Fabio Grosso went to ground after making contact with Australian defender Lucas Neill who was laying on the ground. Francesco Totti converted it for a 1-0 win.

In the quarterfinals Italy beat Ukraine 3-0. Gianluca Zambrotta opened the scoring early (6') with a left-footed shot from outside the penalty area and Luca Toni added two more goals (59' and 69'). Manager Marcello Lippi dedicated the victory to former Italian international Gianluca Pessotto, who was in the hospital recovering from an apparent suicide attempt.

In the semi-final, Italy beat host country Germany 2-0 with the two goals coming in the last two minutes of extra time. After an exciting half hour of extra time during which Gilardino and Zambrotta struck the post and the crossbar respectively, Grosso scored in the 119th minute after a disguised Pirlo pass found him open in the penalty area for a bending left-footed shot into the far corner past German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann's dive. Substitute striker Alessandro Del Piero then sealed the victory by scoring with the last kick of the game at the end of a swift counterattack.

Within the crowd in the Circus Maximus in Rome, after the Italian team scored against France

The Azzurri won their fourth World Cup, defeating France in Berlin, on July 9, 5-3 on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw at the end of extra time. French captain Zinedine Zidane opened the scoring in the 7th minute with a chipped penalty kick, controversially awarded for a foul by Materazzi. Twelve minutes later, a powerful header by Materazzi from a corner kick by Pirlo brought Italy even. In the second half, a goal by Toni was disallowed for a very close offside call. At 110', Zidane was sent off after a head butt, after a verbal exchange with Materazzi; the two players were eventually fined by FIFA for this incident. Italy then won the penalty shoot-out 5-3, the crucial penalty being David Trézéguet's attempt that hit the crossbar and stayed out. Italy scored all five attempts in a shootout for the first time ever (Pirlo, Materazzi, De Rossi, Del Piero and Grosso).

Ten different players scored for Italy and five goals out of twelve were scored by substitutes, while four goals were scored by defenders. Seven players - Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Zambrotta, Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, Totti and Toni - were named to the 23-man tournament All Star Team.[20] Buffon also won the Lev Yashin Award, given to the best goalkeeper of the tournament; he conceded only two goals in the tournament, the first an own goal by Zaccardo and the second from Zidane's penalty kick, and remained unbeaten for 460 consecutive minutes.

After the World Cup

Days after the Italian triumph in the World Cup, Lippi announced his resignation.1994 World Cup star Roberto Donadoni was announced the new coach of the Azzurri on July 13. Italy played in the 2008 UEFA European Football Championship qualifying Group B, along with France. Italy won the group, with France being the runner-up. On February 14, 2007, FIFA ranked Italy 1st in the FIFA World Rankings, with a total of 1488 points, 37 points ahead of second ranked Argentina. This moved them up one from their previous rank, 2nd. The Azzurri had not received such an honour since 1993.

Tournament records

 World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Did Not Enter	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1934	Champions	1	5	4	1	0	12	3
1938	Champions	1	4	4	0	0	11	5
1950	Round 1	7	2	1	0	1	4	3
1954	Round 1	10	3	1	0	2	6	7
1958	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1962	Round 1	9	3	1	1	1	3	2
1966	Round 1	9	3	1	0	2	2	2
1970	Runners-Up	2	6	3	2	1	10	8
1974	Round 1	10	3	1	1	1	5	4
1978	Fourth Place	4	7	4	1	2	9	6
1982	Champions	1	7	4	3	0	12	6
1986	Round 2	12	4	1	2	1	5	6
1990	Third Place	3	7	6	1	0	10	2
1994	Runners-Up	2	7	4	2	1	8	5
1998	Quarter-Finals	5	5	3	2	0	8	3
2002	Round 2	15	4	1	1	2	5	5
2006	Champions	1	7	5	2	0	12	2
Total	16/18	4 Titles	77	44	19	14	122	69

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

European Championship record

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1960	Did not Enter	-	-	-	-	-	-
1964	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1968	Champions	3	1	2	0	3	1
1972	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1976	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1980	Fourth place	4	1	3	0	2	1
1984	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1988	Semi-final	4	2	1	1	4	3
1992	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1996	Round 1	3	1	1	1	3	3
2000	Runners-up	6	4	1	1	9	4
2004	Round 1	3	1	2	0	3	2
2008	Qualified	1	0	0	1	0	3
2012		-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	7/13	23	10	10	3	24	14

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Honours

This is a list of honours for all of the senior Italian national teams, including Olympic and Military teams

• FIFA World Cup

• Winner (4): 1934, 1938, 1982, 2006
• Runner-up (2): 1970, 1994
• Third Place (1): 1990

• UEFA European Championship

• Winner (1): 1968
• Runner-up (1): 2000

• Football at the Summer Olympics

• Gold medal (1): 1936
• Bronze Medal (2): 1928, 2004

• Central European Champions

• Winner (2): 1927-30; 1933-35
• Runner-up (1): 1931 - 1932

• World Military Cup

• Winner (8): 1950, 1951, 1956, 1959, 1973, 1987, 1989, 1991
• Runner-up (4): 1955, 1972, 1979, 1997
• Third Place (3): 2003, 1977, 1957

• Laureus World Sports Award for Team of the Year: 2007

Coaches

During the earliest days of Italian nation football, it was common for a Technical Commission to be appointed. The Commission took the role that a standard coach would currently play. Since 1967, the national team has been controlled only by coaches.

For this reason, the coach of the Italian national team is still called Technical Commissioner (Commissario tecnico o CT).

• Technical Commission (1910–1912)
• Vittorio Pozzo (1912)
• Technical Commission (1912–1924)
• Vittorio Pozzo (1924)
• Technical Commission (1924–1925)
• Augusto Rangone (1925–1928)
• Carlo Carcano (1928–1929)
• Vittorio Pozzo (1929–1948) — World Champions 1934, World Champions 1938
• Ferruccio Novo (1949–1950) — as Technical Commission Chairman
• Technical Commission (1951)
• Carlino Beretta (1952–1953)
• Technical Commission (1953–1959)
• Giuseppe Viani (1960)
• Giovanni Ferrari (1960–1961)
• Giovanni Ferrari and Paolo Mazza (1962)
• Edmondo Fabbri (1962–1966)
• Helenio Herrera and Ferruccio Valcareggi (1966–1967)
• Ferruccio Valcareggi (1967–1974) — European Champions 1968, Runners-Up World Cup 1970
• Fulvio Bernardini (1974–1975)
• Enzo Bearzot (1975–1986) — World Champions 1982— 4th Place World Cup 1978
• Azeglio Vicini (1986–1991) — 3rd Place World Cup 1990
• Arrigo Sacchi (1991–1996) — Runners-Up World Cup 1994
• Cesare Maldini (1997–1998)
• Dino Zoff (1998–2000) — Runners-Up European Championships 2000
• Giovanni Trapattoni (2000–2004)
• Marcello Lippi (2004–2006) — World Champions 2006
• Roberto Donadoni (2006-current)

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Team Italy Bulgaria Republic of Ireland Cyprus Georgia Montenegro

Players

Current squad

The following 23 players named for Euro 2008. Caps and goals as of June 9, 2008, included against Netherlands.

Goalkeepers

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club 1 GK Gianluigi Buffon (Captain) 28 January 1978 83 0 Juventus 14 GK Marco Amelia 2 April 1982 6 0 Palermo 17 GK Morgan De Sanctis 26 March 1977 2 0 Sevilla

Defenders

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club 2 DF Christian Panucci 12 April 1973 54 3 Roma 3 DF Fabio Grosso 28 November 1977 32 3 Lyon 4 DF Giorgio Chiellini 14 August 1984 10 1 Juventus 5 DF Alessandro Gamberini 27 August 1981 2 0 Fiorentina 6 DF Andrea Barzagli 8 May 1981 23 0 Wolfsburg 19 DF Gianluca Zambrotta 19 February 1977 72 2 Milan 23 DF Marco Materazzi 19 August 1973 41 2 Inter

Midfielders

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club 8 MF Gennaro Gattuso 9 January 1978 59 1 Milan 10 MF Daniele De Rossi 24 July 1983 33 4 Roma 13 MF Massimo Ambrosini 29 May 1977 32 0 Milan 16 MF Mauro Camoranesi 4 October 1976 36 4 Juventus 20 MF Simone Perrotta 17 September 1977 41 2 Roma 21 MF Andrea Pirlo 19 May 1979 47 6 Milan 22 MF Alberto Aquilani 7 July 1984 5 0 Roma

Strikers

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club 7 FW Alessandro Del Piero 9 November 1974 87 27 Juventus 9 FW Luca Toni 26 May 1977 35 15 Bayern Munich 11 FW Antonio Di Natale 13 October 1977 19 7 Udinese 12 FW Marco Borriello 18 June 1982 3 0 Milan 15 FW Fabio Quagliarella 31 January 1983 8 3 Udinese 18 FW Antonio Cassano 12 July 1982 12 3 Sampdoria

Notable players

Players are ordered by year of debut with national football team

1915 Luigi Cevenini (MF) 1920 Virginio Rosetta (DF) 1924 Giampiero Combi (GK) Felice Levratto (FW) 1926 Attilio Ferraris (MF) 1929 Raimundo Orsi (FW) 1930 Giovanni Ferrari (MF) Giuseppe Meazza (FW) 1932 Luis Monti (MF) 1935 Silvio Piola (FW) 1938 Amedeo Biavati (FW) 1942 Valentino Mazzola (MF) 1947 Giampiero Boniperti (FW) 1949 Amedeo Amadei (FW) 1961 Enrico Albertosi (GK) Mario Corso (MF) 1962 Gianni Rivera (MF) 1963 Giacinto Facchetti (DF) Sandro Mazzola (FW) 1964 Armando Picchi (DF) 1965 Luigi Riva (FW) 1967 Roberto Boninsegna (FW) 1968 Dino Zoff (GK) 1971 Romeo Benetti (MF) Claudio Sala (MF)

1972 Fabio Capello (MF) Franco Causio (MF) Giorgio Chinaglia (FW) 1973 Paolo Pulici (FW) 1974 Giancarlo Antognoni (MF) 1975 Roberto Bettega (FW) Claudio Gentile (DF) Francesco Graziani (FW) Gaetano Scirea (DF) 1976 Marco Tardelli (MF) 1977 Paolo Rossi (FW) 1978 Antonio Cabrini (DF) Gabriele Oriali (MF) 1979 Fulvio Collovati (DF) 1980 Alessandro Altobelli (FW) Bruno Conti (MF) 1982 Franco Baresi (DF) Giuseppe Bergomi (DF) 1986 Roberto Donadoni (MF) Giuseppe Giannini (MF) 1984 Roberto Mancini (FW) 1985 Gianluca Vialli (FW) 1986 Walter Zenga (GK) 1987 Ciro Ferrara (DF) 1988 Roberto Baggio (MF) Paolo Maldini (DF) 1990 Salvatore Schillaci (FW)

1991 Demetrio Albertini (MF) Dino Baggio (MF) Pierluigi Casiraghi (FW) Alessandro Costacurta (DF) Gianluca Pagliuca (GK) Gianfranco Zola (MF) 1994 Christian Panucci (DF) 1995 Angelo Peruzzi (GK) Francesco Toldo (GK) Alessandro Del Piero (FW) 1996 Alessandro Nesta (DF) 1997 Gianluigi Buffon (GK) Fabio Cannavaro (DF) Filippo Inzaghi (FW) Christian Vieri (FW) 1998 Francesco Totti (FW) Luigi Di Biagio (MF) 1999 Gianluca Zambrotta (DF) 2000 Gennaro Gattuso (MF) 2001 Marco Materazzi (DF) 2002 Simone Perrotta (MF) Andrea Pirlo (MF) 2003 Mauro Camoranesi (MF) Antonio Cassano (FW) Fabio Grosso (DF) 2004 Daniele De Rossi (MF) Alberto Gilardino (FW) Luca Toni (FW)

Most capped players

As of June 9, 2008, the players with the most caps for Italy are:

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1	Paolo Maldini	1988–2002	126	7
2	Fabio Cannavaro	1997—	116	2
3	Dino Zoff	1968–1983	112	0
4	Giacinto Facchetti	1963–1977	94	3
5	Alessandro Del Piero	1995—	87	27
6	Gianluigi Buffon	1997—	83	0
7	Franco Baresi	1982–1994	81	1
	Giuseppe Bergomi	1982–1998	81	6
	Marco Tardelli	1976–1985	81	6
10	Demetrio Albertini	1991–2002	79	3

Top goalscorers

As of June 9, 2008, the players with the most goals for Italy are:

#	Player	Career	Goals (caps)	Goals per match
1	Luigi Riva	1965–1974	35 (42)	0.83
2	Giuseppe Meazza	1930–1939	33 (53)	0.62
3	Silvio Piola	1935–1952	30 (34)	0.88
4	Roberto Baggio	1988–2004	27 (56)	0.48
	Alessandro Del Piero	1995—	27 (87)	0.31
6	Adolfo Baloncieri	1920–1930	25 (47)	0.53
	Filippo Inzaghi	1997–2007	25 (57)	0.44
	Alessandro Altobelli	1980–1988	25 (61)	0.41
9	Christian Vieri	1997–2005	23 (49)	0.47
	Francesco Graziani	1975–1983	23 (64)	0.36

Trivia

• Italy played in the two World Cup finals that ended in shootouts. In 1994, they lost to Brazil and most recently in 2006, they emerged victorious over France.
• There has been at least one Juventus player in every Italian World Cup squad since they first entered in 1934.
• Italy have reached the World Cup Final at 12 year intervals for the last 10 tournaments, suffering defeat in 1970, then winning in 1982, suffering defeat again in 1994 before winning in 2006.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Netherlands
Nickname(s)	Oranje, Clockwork Orange, Orange Crush, The Orangemen
Association	Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond (Royal Netherlands Football Association)
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Marco van Basten, (2004-)
Captain	Edwin van der Sar
Most caps	Edwin van der Sar (126)
Top scorer	Patrick Kluivert (40)
Home stadium	Amsterdam ArenA, De Kuip, Philips Stadion
FIFA code	NED
FIFA ranking	10
Highest FIFA ranking	2 (November 1993)
Lowest FIFA ranking	25 (May 1998)
Elo ranking	3
Highest Elo ranking	1 (1911-12, 1978, 1988-1990, 1992, 2002, 2003, 2005)
Lowest Elo ranking	56 (October 1954)
First international
Belgium 1 - 4 Netherlands (Antwerp, Belgium; 30 April 1905)
Biggest win
Netherlands 9 - 0 Finland (Solna, Sweden; 4 July 1912) Netherlands 9 - 0 Norway (Rotterdam, Netherlands; 1 November 1972)
Biggest defeat
England Amateur 12 - 2 Netherlands (Darlington, England; 21 December 1907)
World Cup
Appearances	8 (First in 1934)
Best result	Runners-up, 1974 and 1978
European Championship
Appearances	7 (First in 1976)
Best result	Winners, 1988

The Netherlands national football team is the national football team of the Netherlands and is controlled by the Royal Netherlands Football Association. It won Euro 88 and reached two consecutive World Cup finals in 1974 and 1978 but lost both finals to their respective host nations, West Germany and Argentina. At the peak of its success in the 1970s, the team was famous for its mastery of Total Football and was nicknamed "Clockwork Orange" for its precision passing. In many countries the team is colloquially referred to as "Holland".

History

The Netherlands made their first appearance at the World Cup final tournament in 1934, and after coming back in 1938, the Dutch national team entered the wilderness of world football.

The Dutch squad in 1934.

History to 1970

Not until a shift to a national league and full professionalism in the 1950s did the fortunes of the Netherlands improve at both club and international level. In the 1958 World Cup qualifiers, they finished 2 points behind Austria, having lost 3-2 in Vienna after leading 2-0. The team saw continuous improvement throughout the 1960s.

Total Football

They came out of this wilderness in the 1970s with the invention of Total Football (Dutch: Totaalvoetbal), pioneered by Ajax and led by playmaker Johan Cruijff and national team coach Rinus Michels. The Dutch made huge strides, qualifying for two World Cup finals in the decade.

In 1974, the Netherlands beat both Brazil and Argentina in the second group stage, reaching the final for the first time in their history. However, the team lost to West Germany in the final in Munich, despite having gone 1-0 up through Johan Neeskens' early penalty kick before any German had even touched the ball. Supported by the crowd, goals from Paul Breitner and Gerd Müller led to a victory for the Germans. In spite of losing the final, the "Clockwork Orange" and Johan Cruijff had already written a new page in football's history.

By comparison, Euro 76 was a disappointment. The Netherlands lost in the semi-finals to Czechoslovakia, as much because of infighting within the squad and because of coach George Knobel, as well as the skill of the eventual winners.

In 1978, the Netherlands again reached the final, only to be beaten by the hosts, Argentina. This side played without Johan Cruijff, Willem van Hanegem and Jan van Beveren, who refused to participate in the World Cup. It still contained players such as Johan Neeskens, Johnny Rep, Arie Haan, Ruud Krol and Rob Rensenbrink from the 1974 selection. This time the Netherlands were less impressive in the group stages, as they qualified only as runners-up, after a draw with Peru and a loss to Scotland. In the second group phase, however, the Netherlands topped a group including Italy and West Germany, setting up a final with Argentina. However, the Dutch finished as runners up for the second World Cup in a row as they ultimately lost 3-1 after two extra time goals from Argentina. Agonisingly for the Dutch, Rensenbrink hit the Argentinian post in the last minute of normal time, with the score 1-1.

Euro 80 was the last tournament that the generation of Total Football qualified for, but they did not advance past the group stage, despite the tournament format being expanded that year. Veterans such as Krol and Rensenbrink retired soon afterwards and the Netherlands missed the 1982 World Cup, Euro 84 and 1986 World Cup in succession.

European Champions

Rinus Michels returned to coach the team for the Euro 88 tournament. After losing the first group match against the USSR (1-0), the Netherlands went on to qualify for the semi-final by defeating England 3-1 (with a hat-trick by the tournament's top scorer Marco van Basten), and Republic of Ireland (1-0). For many Dutch football supporters, the most important match in the tournament was the semi-final against West Germany, the host country, considered a revenge for the lost 1974 World Cup final (also in West Germany). Marco van Basten, who would later become national team coach, scored in the 89th minute of the game to sink the German side. The game is also remembered for its post-match shenanigans, including Ronald Koeman, who, in front of the German supporters, provocatively pretended to wipe his backside with the shirt of Olaf Thon as if it were toilet paper, an action Koeman later regretted. The Netherlands won the final with a convincing victory over the USSR, a rematch on the round robin game, through a header by Ruud Gullit and a volley by Van Basten. This was the national team's first major tournament win and it restored them to the forefront of international football after almost a decade in wilderness.

Despite high expectations as the team entered the 1990 World Cup, that tournament was not a success. Van Basten failed to score, as he was frequently marked by opposing defenders, while Gullit was ineffective having not fully recovered from injury. The Dutch managed to advance despite drawing all three group games, meeting their arch-rivals West Germany in the round of 16. The match is most remembered for the spitting-incident involving Frank Rijkaard and Rudi Völler as the Netherlands lost 2-1.

The team subsequently reached the semi-finals in the Euro 92, which was noted for the emergence of Dennis Bergkamp, but they were eliminated by eventual champions Denmark, with Van Basten's kick in the penalty shootout being saved by Peter Schmeichel. This was also Van Basten's last major tournament, as he retired shortly after due to injury.

In the 1994 World Cup, Dennis Bergkamp led the team with 3 goals and the Netherlands advanced to the quarter-final, where they lost 3-2 to eventual champions Brazil.

1998 World Cup and Euro 2000

Dutch supporters

At Euro 96, after drawing 0-0 with Scotland and beating Switzerland 2-0, they faced the hosts England in the pool A decider, with both teams on 4 points. After 62 minutes, with Scotland beating Switzerland 1-0, The Netherlands were 4-0 down and looked like finishing third behind Scotland on goal difference and going out of the tournament, but Patrick Kluivert converted a Dennis Bergkamp assist and scored in the 78th minute to see the Dutch finish second on goals scored. They then played France in the quarter-finals, drawing 0-0 and being eliminated 5-4 on penalties.

In 1998 World Cup, Netherlands, whose team included Marc Overmars, Phillip Cocu, Edgar Davids, Frank de Boer, Ronald de Boer and Patrick Kluivert, met Argentina in the quarterfinal, a rematch of the 1978 final. Near the end of regular time, after an unsuccessful dive to draw a penalty, Argentinian Ariel Ortega head-butted Edwin van der Sar.[2] Ortega was sent off and the Netherlands won 2-1 after a Bergkamp goal in the 89th minute. Bergkamp's goal was famous because of its quality--he touched down a 60-yard (55 m) pass from Frank de Boer then reverse-flicked it inside Roberto Ayala and finally volleyed it past the Argentine goalkeeper. In the semi-final, the Netherlands took Brazil to a penalty shootout after a late Kluivert goal tied the match 1-1, but Brazil won the shootout 4-2 and advanced to the final. Netherlands lost the 3rd place match 2-1 to upstart Croatia.

Netherlands co-hosted Euro 2000 with Belgium and were one of the favourites coming into the tournament. Getting all three wins in the group stage, including a win over reigning World Cup champions France, they then crushed Yugoslavia 6-1 in the quarter-finals, with Kluivert getting a hat-trick. In the semi-finals, their opponents Italy went down to ten men in the first half and the Netherlands were awarded two penalty kicks but failed to convert either chance. Italian goalkeeper Francesco Toldo made two saves in the shootout (in addition to his penalty save in regulation time) to eliminate the Netherlands. Coach Frank Rijkaard was widely criticized by the press as the Dutch had squandered several chances to kill the game and he resigned, with Louis van Gaal taking over. Dennis Bergkamp retired from the national team after Euro 2000, having failed to score during the tournament.

Recent

Netherlands at the 2006 World Cup

Netherlands failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup, with crucial losses to Portugal and the Republic of Ireland, the latter of which eliminated them from the Finals tournament. Van Gaal resigned at the conclusion of the Netherlands' unsuccessful campaign.

Netherlands reached the semifinals of Euro 2004 but lost to Portugal. Coach Dick Advocaat was criticized for his tactics and player changes and stepped down after the tournament. Also, many of the team's World Cup veterans like Frank de Boer, Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids, Clarence Seedorf, Marc Overmars, Jaap Stam, and Patrick Kluivert had either retired or were not selected for the upcoming World Cup by new coach Marco van Basten.

Training in Germany.

The Netherlands qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany and finished second in Group C after beating Serbia & Montenegro (1-0) and the Ivory Coast (2-1) and drawing Argentina (0-0). Both Argentina and the Netherlands finished the group stage with 7 points, but the Argentinians had a superior goal difference and finished first as a result. The Dutch were eliminated in the second round after losing 0-1 to Portugal, in a match that produced a World Cup record of four red cards (two for either side) and was nicknamed "the Battle of Nuremberg" by the press. Despite criticism surrounding his selection policy and the lack of attacking football from his team, Marco van Basten was offered a two-year extension to his contract by the Dutch FA, which would allow him to serve as national coach during Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup. The move was widely regarded as a vote of confidence in Van Basten and his assistants by the KNVB officials.

The Netherlands began their Euro 2008 campaign with a win in Luxembourg on 2 September 2006. On September 8, 2007 the Oranje beat Bulgaria at the Amsterdam ArenA on goals by Wesley Sneijder and Ruud van Nistelrooy. On September 12, 2007, the Netherlands won a hard fought victory against Albania, with Ruud van Nistelrooy scoring the winning goal in stoppage time. This win takes the Dutch squad into second place in group G, on level with Romania for points, but behind on goal differential. The Oranje were beaten 1-0 in Romania on October 13, 2007, but four days later the Netherlands' 2-0 victory over Slovenia, while rivals Bulgaria could only draw in Albania, left the Dutch needing one win from their last two games, at home to Luxembourg and away to Belarus, to qualify for Euro 2008.

The Netherlands played their first game in 2008 against Croatia in Split. The team, without Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robin van Persie, Clarence Seedorf, Orlando Engelaar, and Arjen Robben, won the match 3-0. The first goal was scored by John Heitinga on a header, while Klaas-Jan Huntelaar scored the second goal on assist from Tim de Cler. The final goal came from Celtic striker Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. The team used a new formation under Marco van Basten, scrapping the previously used 4-3-3 formation for a 4-2-3-1.

They began Euro 2008 with a resounding 3-0 win over Italy in Berne on June 9, 2008. This was the Netherlands' first victory of Italy since 1978.

Strip

Coat of arms of the Netherlands

Dutch fans wearing the traditional orange colours of the national team at a 2006 World Cup match at the Gottlieb-Daimler-Stadion, Stuttgart

The Netherlands national football plays in a bright orange shirt. Orange is the historic national colour of the Netherlands, originating from the coat of arms of the Dutch founding father William of Orange-Nassau. The top red band of the current flag was originally orange. The current Dutch away shirt is nassau blue, with a small trim on the chest containing the colors of the Dutch flag.

Nike is the kit provider to the national team, a sponsorship that began in 1996 and is contracted to continue until at least 2018.

Rivalry with Germany

The Dutch national football team has a long standing rivalry with Germany. Although it might date back to the Second World War, usually people date it to the 1974 World Cup, where the Netherlands lost the final to West Germany, despite being regarded as the better team. Other notable clashes between the two nations were in the semifinal of Euro 88, where Marco van Basten slid the winning goal in the last minute past the German keeper, and the game in the Round of 16 in the 1990 World Cup, with Germany beating the Dutch after an infamous spitting incident involving Frank Rijkaard and Rudi Völler.

Competitive record

World Cup record Year Round Position GP W D* L GS GA 1930 Did Not Enter - - - - - - - 1934 Round 1 9 1 0 0 1 2 3 1938 Round 1 14 1 0 0 1 0 3 1950 Did Not Enter - - - - - - - 1954 Did Not Enter - - - - - - - 1958 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - - 1962 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - - 1966 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - - 1970 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - - 1974 Final 2 7 5 1 1 15 3 1978 Final 2 7 3 2 2 15 10 1982 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - - 1986 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - - 1990 Round 2 15 4 0 3 1 3 4 1994 Quarter-Finals 7 5 3 0 2 8 6 1998 Semi-Finals 4 7 3 3* 1 13 7 2002 Did Not Qualify - - - - - - - 2006 Round 2 11 4 2 1 1 3 2 2010                 Total 8/18 2 Finals 36 16 10 10 59 38 *Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty shootout.

European Championship record Year Round GP W D* L GS GA 1960 Did not enter - - - - - - 1964 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1968 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1972 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1976 Third place 2 1 0 1 4 5 1980 Round 1 3 1 1 1 4 4 1984 Did not qualify - - - - - - 1988 Champions 5 4 0 1 8 3 1992 Semi-Final 4 2 2* 0 6 3 1996 Quarter-Finals 4 1 2* 1 3 4 2000 Semi-Final 5 4 1* 0 13 3 2004 Semi-Final 5 1 2* 2 7 6 2008 Qualified 1 1 0 0 3 0 2012   - - - - - - Total 1 Title 29 14 9 6 48 23 *Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty shootout. **Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil. Summer Olympics Olympic medal record Men’s Football Bronze 1920 Antwerp Bronze 1912 Stockholm Bronze 1908 London

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Team Netherlands Scotland Norway FYR Macedonia Iceland

Current squad

Euro 2008 squad (23 players)
Date announced	May 27, 2008.

Caps and goals as of June 9, 2008.

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club 1 GK Edwin van der Sar (c) 29 October 1970 (37) 126 0 Manchester United 2 DF André Ooijer 11 July 1974 (33) 38 2 Blackburn Rovers 3 DF John Heitinga 15 November 1983 (24) 37 5 Ajax 4 DF Joris Mathijsen 5 April 1980 (28) 33 2 Hamburg 5 MF Giovanni van Bronckhorst 5 February 1975 (33) 79 5 Feyenoord 6 MF Demy de Zeeuw 26 May 1983 (25) 15 0 AZ 7 FW Robin van Persie 6 August 1983 (24) 25 7 Arsenal 8 MF Orlando Engelaar 24 August 1979 (28) 7 0 Twente 9 FW Ruud van Nistelrooy 1 July 1976 (31) 62 32 Real Madrid 10 MF Wesley Sneijder 9 June 1984 (24) 46 10 Real Madrid 11 FW Arjen Robben 23 January 1984 (24) 33 9 Real Madrid 12 DF Mario Melchiot 4 November 1976 (31) 21 0 Wigan Athletic 13 GK Henk Timmer 3 December 1971 (36) 5 0 Feyenoord 14 DF Wilfred Bouma 15 June 1978 (29) 33 2 Aston Villa 15 DF Tim de Cler 8 November 1978 (29) 15 0 Feyenoord 16 GK Maarten Stekelenburg 22 September 1982 (25) 11 0 Ajax 17 MF Nigel de Jong 30 November 1984 (23) 24 0 Hamburg 18 FW Dirk Kuyt 22 July 1980 (27) 39 7 Liverpool 19 FW Klaas-Jan Huntelaar 12 August 1983 (24) 12 7 Ajax 20 MF Ibrahim Afellay 2 April 1986 (22) 6 0 PSV 21 DF Khalid Boulahrouz 28 December 1981 (26) 23 0 Chelsea 22 FW Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink 7 November 1978 (29) 16 3 Celtic 23 MF Rafael van der Vaart 11 February 1983 (25) 56 12 Hamburg

Past managers

Cees van Hasselt 1905-1908 Edgar Chadwick 1908-1913 Jimmy Hogan 1910 Tom Bradshaw 1913 Billy Hunter 1914 Jack Reynolds 1919 Fred Warburton 1919-1923 Jim Waites 1921 Bob Glendenning 1923 Bill Townley 1924 J.E. Bollington 1924 Bob Glendenning 1925-1940 Karel Kaufman 1946

Jesse Carver 1947-1948 Tom Sneddon 1948 Karel Kaufman 1949 Jaap van der Leck 1949-1954 Karel Kaufman 1954-1955 Friedrich Donenfeld 1955 Max Merkel 1955-1956 Wudi Müller 1956 Friedrich Donenfeld 1956-1957 George Hardwick 1957 Elek Schwartz 1957-1964 Denis Neville 1964-1966 Georg Kessler 1966-1970

Frantisek Fadrhonc 1970-1974 Rinus Michels 1974 George Knobel 1974-1976 Jan Zwartkruis 1976-1977 Ernst Happel 1977-1978 Jan Zwartkruis 1978-1981 Rob Baan 1981 Kees Rijvers 1981 Rob Baan 1981 Kees Rijvers 1981-1984 Rinus Michels 1984-1985 Leo Beenhakker 1985-1986 Rinus Michels 1986-1988

Thijs Libregts 1988-1990 Nol de Ruiter 1990 Leo Beenhakker 1990 Rinus Michels 1990-1992 Dick Advocaat 1992-1995 Guus Hiddink 1995-1998 Jan Rab 1997 Frank Rijkaard 1998-2000 Louis van Gaal 2000-2002 Dick Advocaat 2002-2004 Marco van Basten 2004-2008 Bert van Marwijk 2008-....

Players

Notable past players

Listed according to when they debuted for Netherlands (year in parentheses):

Bok de Korver (1905) Jan van Breda Kolff (1911) Harry Dénis (1919) Puck van Heel (1925) Wim Anderiesen (1926) Bep Bakhuys (1928) Leen Vente (1933) Kick Smit (1935) Abe Lenstra (1940) Faas Wilkes (1946) Kees Rijvers (1946) Roel Wiersma (1954) Cor van der Hart (1955) Coen Moulijn (1956) Sjaak Swart (1960) Jan Jongbloed (1962) Piet Keizer (1962) Rinus Israel (1964) Johan Cruijff (1966) Willy van der Kuijlen (1966)

Wim Suurbier (1966) Jan van Beveren (1967) Wim Jansen (1967) Willem van Hanegem (1968) Rob Rensenbrink (1968) Ruud Krol (1969) Johan Neeskens (1970) Barry Hulshoff (1971) Piet Schrijvers (1971) Arie Haan (1972) René van de Kerkhof (1973) Johnny Rep (1973) Ruud Geels (1974) Willy van de Kerkhof (1974) Kees Kist (1975) Ernie Brandts (1977) Hugo Hovenkamp (1977) Tscheu La Ling (1977) John Metgod (1978) Arnold Mühren (1978)

Dick Nanninga (1978) Piet Wildschut (1978) Michel van de Korput (1979) Huub Stevens (1979) Simon Tahamata (1979) Bennie Wijnstekers (1979) Joop Hiele (1980) Hans van Breukelen (1980) Ronald Spelbos (1980) Ruud Gullit (1981) Wim Kieft (1981) Frank Rijkaard (1981) René van der Gijp (1982) Gerald Vanenburg (1982) Jan Wouters (1982) Marco van Basten (1983) Erwin Koeman (1983) Ronald Koeman (1983) Sonny Silooy (1983) Adri van Tiggelen (1983) Danny Blind (1986)

John Bosman (1986) John van 't Schip (1986) Berry van Aerle (1987) Aron Winter (1987) Bryan Roy (1989) Rob Witschge (1989) Dennis Bergkamp (1990) Frank de Boer (1990) Stan Valckx (1990) Richard Witschge (1990) Ed de Goey (1992) Wim Jonk (1992) Arthur Numan (1992) Peter van Vossen (1992) Ronald de Boer (1993) Marc Overmars (1993) Edgar Davids (1994) Patrick Kluivert (1994) Roy Makaay (1996) Jaap Stam (1996) Philip Cocu (1996)

Most capped players As of June 9, 2007, the ten players with the most caps for the Netherlands are: # Name Career Caps Goals 1. Edwin van der Sar 1995 - present 126 0 2. Frank de Boer 1990 - 2004 112 13 3. Phillip Cocu 1996 - 2006 101 10 4. Marc Overmars 1993 - 2004 86 17 Clarence Seedorf 1994 - present 86 11 6. Aron Winter 1987 - 2000 84 6 7. Ruud Krol 1969 - 1983 83 4 8. Patrick Kluivert 1994 - 2004 79 40 Dennis Bergkamp 1990 - 2000 79 37 10. Ronald Koeman 1983 - 1994 78 14

Top goalscorers As of June 9, 2007, the ten players with the most goals for the Netherlands are: # Player Career Goals (Caps) Avg/game 1. Patrick Kluivert 1994 - 2004 40 (79) 0.51 2. Dennis Bergkamp 1990 - 2000 37 (79) 0.47 3. Faas Wilkes 1946 - 1961 35 (38) 0.92 4. Abe Lenstra 1940 - 1959 33 (47) 0.70 5. Johan Cruijff 1966 - 1977 33 (48) 0.69 6. Ruud van Nistelrooy 1998 - present 32 (62) 0.52 7. Bep Bakhuys 1928 - 1937 28 (23) 1.22 8. Kick Smit 1935 - 1946 26 (29) 0.90 9. Marco van Basten 1983 - 1992 24 (58) 0.41 10. Leen Vente 1933 - 1940 19 (21) 0.90

Portugal
Association	Federação Portuguesa de Futebol
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Luiz Felipe Scolari (2003-2008)
Captain	Nuno Gomes
Most caps	Luís Figo (127)
Top scorer	Pauleta (47)
FIFA code	POR
FIFA ranking	11
Highest FIFA ranking	4 (March 2001)
Lowest FIFA ranking	43 (August 1998)
Elo ranking	8
Highest Elo ranking	2 (June 2006)
Lowest Elo ranking	45 (November 1962)
First international
Spain 3 - 1 Portugal (Madrid, Spain; 18 November 1921)
Biggest win
Portugal 8 - 0 Liechtenstein (Lisbon, Portugal; 18 November 1994) Portugal 8 - 0 Liechtenstein (Coimbra, Portugal; 9 June 1999) Portugal 8 - 0 Kuwait (Leiria, Portugal; 19 November 2003)
Biggest defeat
Portugal 0 - 10 England (Lisbon, Portugal; 25 May 1947)
World Cup
Appearances	4 (First in 1966)
Best result	Third place, 1966
European Championship
Appearances	5 (First in 1984)
Best result	Second place, 2004

The Portugal national football team is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), finishing 4th at the last World Cup. Portugal have qualified four times for the FIFA World Cup; 1966, 1986, 2002 and 2006. The first appearance saw them reach the semi final, losing 2-1 at Wembley to the eventual world champions England. Portugal finished in third place and Eusébio was considered the best player of the tournament. The next two times Portugal qualified for the World Cup were 1986 and 2002, with Portugal going out in the first round both times after surprise defeats to Morocco, United States and South Korea. In the 1986 tournament, players went on strike over prize-money and refused to train between their first and the second games.

In 2003, the Portuguese Football Federation decided to hire Luiz Felipe Scolari, the Brazilian who had led the Brazil national football team to win the 2002 FIFA World Cup. Scolari led Portugal to the final of Euro 2004 (The European Championships), where they lost to Greece, and to their second World Cup semi final in 2006, where they lost to France. The Portuguese were unable to equal Eusebio's 1966 third place finish as they lost to hosts Germany 3-1 on July 8 in Stuttgart, finishing in fourth place in the 2006 World Cup.

FIFA World Cup

1966 FIFA World Cup

The team started out with three wins in the group stage where they were in Group C when they beat Hungary, Bulgaria and two-time defending champions Brazil. Secondly they beat surprise quarter-finalist Korea DPR 5-3, with Eusébio getting four markers to overturn a 0-3 deficit. Later, they reached the semifinals where they were beaten by hosts England 2-1. Portugal then defeated USSR 2-1 in the third place match for their best World Cup finish to date. Eusébio was the top scorer of the World Cup with nine goals.

Eusébio played in the 1970 and 1974 World Cup qualifiers but Portugal failed to make the tournament Finals.

1986 FIFA World Cup

In qualification round, Portugal had to beat West Germany in Stuttgart in the last qualifying game to be able to go through to the final round. Portugal won 0-1 and become the first team to beat West Germany at their home ground in an official match. Portugal was a fan favourite to make a good campaign because of their 1984 Euro Cup. The team exited early in the group stages after a win and two losses. They started with a 1-0 win to England. Later they were beaten by Poland with a score of 1-0 and Morocco with a score of 3-1.

1998 FIFA World Cup

The team almost qualified for the tournament that was to be hosted by France. However, during a qualifier in Germany, Rui Costa was controversially sent off for taking too long to walk off the field. Germany drew the crucial game and was thus able to qualify.[1] This incident is regarded as one of the darkest in Portugal's football history, with FIFA being accused of favouritism in support of Germany, who were the defending Euro 96 champions.

2002 FIFA World Cup

Portugal entered the tournament as favourites to win Group D. However, they were upset 3-2 by the United States, at one point being three goals down in the match. They then rebounded with a 4-0 thrashing of Poland, with Pauleta getting a hat trick.

Needing a draw to advance, they lost the final group game to hosts South Korea. Argentinian referee Angel Sanchez sent off João Vieira Pinto for a tackle on Park Ji-Sung. Beto was ejected for his second yellow card of the match, reducing Portugal to nine men, and Park scored the winner to allow the Koreans to advance.[2]

2006 FIFA World Cup

The Portuguese squad qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany under the leadership of manager Luis Felipe Scolari and came in first place in Group D with victories over Angola (1-0, goal from Pauleta), Iran (2-0, goals from Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo) and Mexico (2-1, goals from Maniche and Simão). Only Mexico's Francisco Fonseca was able to score against Portugal.

Portugal defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in the Round of 16 on June 25 in Nuremberg. The only goal came courtesy of a Maniche strike in an acrimonious match marked by 16 yellow cards, with 4 players being sent off for a second bookable offense.

On Saturday, July 1 at Gelsenkirchen, Portugal drew 0-0 after extra-time with England, but won 3-1 on penalties to reach their first World Cup semi-final since 1966. The game was marred by a violent challenge on Portuguese defender Ricardo Carvalho by England's Wayne Rooney, which resulted in him being sent off.

Portugal lost 1-0 against France in the semi-finals on Wednesday, July 5 at Munich. Two players had been forced to sit out due to accumulated bookings from the round of 16 and quarter-finals. It did not help that the team faced a hostile crowd of English and French fans; they relentlessly booed Cristiano Ronaldo for his perceived unsportsmanlike behavior in the previous round. As in the semi-finals of Euro 2000, Portugal were narrowly defeated by France, with the decisive goal being a penalty scored by Zinedine Zidane after Thierry Henry was awarded a penalty from a dubious foul committed by Ricardo Carvalho.

Portugal faced Germany in the third place play-off match on July 8 in Stuttgart. The match was notable for being captain Luis Figo's last before retirement from international football -- though, surprisingly, he was not selected to start the game, coming on as a substitute near the end and setting up Portugal's goal in a 3-1 defeat. Despite this defeat, the Portuguese public hailed their national team as heroes when they returned home. The team won the Most Entertaining Team award for their play during the 2006 World Cup. The award is always organized through public participation in a poll.

Portugal's "Golden Generation" retired after the 2006 World Cup. The departure of Luís Figo has left Portugal's squad with a new look in midfield that was once taken over by himself and the likes of Rui Costa and Sérgio Conceição. The squad attempting to qualify for Euro 2008 will produce a young generation of players from the U-21 squad. Ricardo Quaresma, Joao Moutinho, Miguel Veloso, Nani, Manuel Fernandes, and Cristiano Ronaldo are some of the names that could possibly bring future success to Portugal.

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Team Portugal Sweden Denmark Hungary Albania Malta

World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1966	Third place	3	6	5	0	1	17	8
1986	Round 1	17	3	1	0	2	2	4
2002	Round 1	21	3	1	0	2	6	4
2006	Fourth place	4	7	4	1	2	7	5
Total	4/18	1 third place	19	11	1	7	32	21

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

European Championships

1984 European Championship

This was the first time that Portugal had ever qualified for the European Championship. In fact, the team almost didn't qualify, but a 1-0 victory over USSR in the last game made it possible. Portugal ended in group B, alongside Spain, West Germany and Romania. In the first two games, they tied 0-0 and 1-1 against West Germany and Spain, respectively. A 1-0 win over Romania gave them second place in the group, which was enough to go through to the knockout stage.

They played against the hosts, France, in one of the most exciting matches in European Championship history. France scored first, but Portugal equalised almost an hour later. The game was tied after 90 minutes and went into extra time. Portugal made 2-1 in the first fifteen minutes and both teams could have scored more goals. In the second half of extra time France scored in the 114th and 119th minutes to eliminate Portugal and go through to the final.

1996 European Championship

In the final tournament, Portugal drew 1-1 with European Champions Denmark, won 1-0 to Turkey and Croatia by 3-0, finishing first in their group. In the quarter-finals they lost 1-0 to eventual runners-up, Czech Republic.

2000 European Championship

This tournament was the inaugural success of the so-called "Golden Generation", captained by Fernando Couto. They defeated England, Romania, and Germany to finish atop their group and then defeated Turkey in the quarter-finals; they were eliminated in the semi-final round by France. Nuno Gomes was one of the top scorers in the tournament with four goals.

In the semi-final meeting with World Cup holders France, Portugal scored first. However, France equalized and Portugal were eliminated in extra time by a golden goal when Zinedine Zidane converted a penalty. Austrian referee Gunter Benko controversially awarded the spot kick for a handball after Abel Xavier blocked a shot from Sylvain Wiltord. (Benko initially gave France a corner but changed his mind after consulting with a Slovak linesman Igor Sramka). Abel Xavier, Nuno Gomes and Paulo Bento were given lengthy suspensions for shoving the referee.[3]

2004 European Championship

Portuguese fans during Euro 2004

This tournament was held in Portugal. Portugal, as the host nation, lost the first game against Greece, Greece winning 2-1. They got their first win against Russia 2-0 and also beat Spain 1-0. They went through and went on to play against England, it was an entertaining game to watch, it went on to penalties and Portugal went through with Ricardo scoring the wining penalty. Portugal beat Holland 2-1 in the semi-final with a lovely goal from Maniche. They were eventually beaten by rank outsiders Greece by a goal to Nil, credits to Greek striker, Angelos Charisteas. Previously, on the opening match, Greece beat Portugal 2-1. This was the first time in the history of the competition that the final featured the same two teams as the opening match.

2008 European Championship

The Portuguese team is a featured part of TV network ESPN's ad campaign promoting their coverage of the EURO 2008 tournament.

Final round

Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Portugal	2	2	0	0	5	1	+4	6
Czech Republic	2	1	0	1	2	3	−1	3
Turkey	2	1	0	1	2	3	−1	3
Switzerland	2	0	0	2	1	3	−2	0

2008-06-07 20:45	Portugal	2 – 0	Turkey	Stade de Genève, Geneva Attendance: 30,000 Referee: Herbert Fandel (Germany)
	Pepe  61' Meireles  90+3'

---

2008-06-11 18:00 CET	Czech Republic	1 – 3	Portugal	Stade de Genève, Geneva Attendance: 30,000 Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Greece)
	Sionko  17'		Deco  8' Ronaldo  63' Quaresma  90'

---

2008-06-15 20:45 CET	Switzerland	v	Portugal	St. Jakob-Park, Basel

European Championship Record

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1984	Semi-Final	4	1	2	1	4	4
1996	Quarter-Finals	4	2	1	1	5	2
2000	Semi-Final	5	4	0	1	10	4
2004	Final	6	3	1	2	8	6
2008	Qualified
Total	5/13	19	10	4	5	27	16

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Recent results and forthcoming fixtures

 Portugal 3-0 Kazakhstan  (November 15, 2006, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Brazil 0-2 Portugal  (February 6, 2007, friendly match)
 Portugal 4-0 Belgium  (March 24, 2007, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Serbia 1-1 Portugal  (March 28, 2007, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Belgium 1-2 Portugal  (June 2, 2007, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Kuwait 1-1 Portugal  (June 5, 2007, friendly match)
 Armenia 1-1 Portugal  (August 22, 2007, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Portugal 2-2 Poland  (September 8, 2007, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Portugal 1-1 Serbia  (September 12, 2007, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Azerbaijan 0-2 Portugal  (October 13, 2007, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Kazakhstan 1-2 Portugal  (October 17, 2007, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Portugal 1-0 Armenia  (November 17, 2007, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Portugal 0-0 Finland  (November 21, 2007, Euro 2008 qualifying)
 Portugal 1-3 Italy  (February 6, 2008, friendly match)
 Portugal 1-2 Greece  (March 23, 2008, friendly match)
 Portugal 2-0 Georgia  (May 31, 2008, friendly match)
 Portugal 2-0 Turkey  (June 7, 2008, Euro 2008)
 Czech Republic 1-3 Portugal  (June 11, 2008, Euro 2008)
 Switzerland - Portugal  (June 15, 2008, Euro 2008)

Current squad

The following players named for UEFA EURO 2008.

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club 1 GK Ricardo February 11, 1976 (1976-02-11) (age 32) 77 0 Real Betis 12 GK Nuno January 25, 1974 (1974-01-25) (age 34) 0 0 Porto 22 GK Rui Patricio February 15, 1988 (1988-02-15) (age 20) 0 0 Sporting 2 DF Paulo Ferreira January 18, 1979 (1979-01-18) (age 29) 49 0 Chelsea 3 DF Bruno Alves November 27, 1981 (1981-11-27) (age 26) 11 1 Porto 4 DF José Bosingwa August 24, 1982 (1982-08-24) (age 25) 10 0 Chelsea 5 DF Fernando Meira June 5, 1978 (1978-06-05) (age 30) 51 2 Stuttgart 13 DF Miguel January 4, 1980 (1980-01-04) (age 28) 47 1 Valencia 14 DF Jorge Ribeiro November 9, 1981 (1981-11-09) (age 26) 8 0 Benfica 15 DF Pepe February 26, 1983 (1983-02-26) (age 25) 5 1 Real Madrid 16 DF Ricardo Carvalho May 18, 1978 (1978-05-18) (age 30) 45 4 Chelsea 6 MF Raul Meireles March 17, 1983 (1983-03-17) (age 25) 10 1 Porto 8 MF Petit September 25, 1976 (1976-09-25) (age 31) 56 4 Benfica 10 MF João Moutinho September 8, 1986 (1986-09-08) (age 21) 15 1 Sporting 18 MF Miguel Veloso May 11, 1986 (1986-05-11) (age 22) 7 1 Sporting 20 MF Deco August 27, 1977 (1977-08-27) (age 30) 55 5 Barcelona 7 FW Cristiano Ronaldo (vice-captain) February 5, 1985 (1985-02-05) (age 23) 57 22 Manchester United 11 FW Simão October 31, 1979 (1979-10-31) (age 28) 63 15 Atlético Madrid 17 FW Ricardo Quaresma September 26, 1983 (1983-09-26) (age 24) 22 3 Porto 19 FW Nani November 17, 1986 (1986-11-17) (age 21) 14 2 Manchester United 9 FW Hugo Almeida May 23, 1984 (1984-05-23) (age 24) 10 2 Werder Bremen 21 FW Nuno Gomes (captain) July 5, 1976 (1976-07-05) (age 31) 71 28 Benfica 23 FW Hélder Postiga August 2, 1982 (1982-08-02) (age 25) 32 10 Sporting

• Due to a broken wrist injury during training, Quim will have to miss out the rest of the Euro. Porto's Nuno was called up as his late replacement

Players

Famous Players

Early stars Cândido de Oliveira João Francisco Pepe Jorge Vieira Augusto Silva Pinga António Feliciano Fernando Peyroteo Jesus Correia José Travassos Virgílio Matateu José Águas Costa Pereira Germano 1966 World Cup Glory - "Os Magriços" Eusébio Mário Coluna José Augusto António Simões Torres

1970s Generation Humberto Coelho Artur Jorge António Oliveira Artur Correia João Alves Shéu Manuel Fernandes Vítor Damas Euro 1984 and World Cup 86 - "Os Patrícios" Manuel Bento Rui Jordão Fernando Chalana Nené António Sousa Carlos Manuel Jaime Pacheco João Pinto Fernando Gomes Paulo Futre Other Figures Oceano Rui Barros Vítor Paneira Pedro Barbosa

Golden Generation Luís Figo Rui Costa Sérgio Conceição Fernando Couto Vítor Baía Jorge Costa Dimas João Vieira Pinto Domingos Ricardo Sá Pinto Paulo Sousa António Folha Abel Xavier Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006 - "Os Conquistadores" Nuno Gomes Deco Cristiano Ronaldo Pauleta Ricardo Simão Sabrosa Maniche Costinha Ricardo Carvalho Miguel Tiago Paulo Ferreira Fernando Meira Jorge Andrade Nuno Valente

Most appearances

Below is a list of the 10 players with the most appearances for Portugal, as of June 7, 2008 (* denotes players still available for selection):

No	Name	Games	Goals	First game	Last game
1	Luís Figo	127	32	12-10-1991	08-07-2006
2	Fernando Couto	110	8	19-12-1990	30-06-2004
3	Rui Costa	94	26	31-03-1993	04-07-2004
4	Pauleta	88	47	20-08-1997	08-07-2006
5	João Vieira Pinto	81	23	12-10-1991	14-06-2002
6	Vítor Baía	80	0	19-12-1990	07-09-2002
7	Ricardo*	76	0	02-06-2001	11-06-2008
8	João Pinto	70	1	16-02-1983	09-11-1996
=	Nuno Gomes*	70	28	24-01-1996	11-06-2008
10	Nené	66	22	21-04-1971	23-06-1984

Most goals

Below is a list of the top ten players with the most goals for the Portugal national football team, as of June 7, 2008. (* denotes players still available for selection)

No	Name	Games	Goals	First game	Last game
1	Pauleta	88	47	20-08-1997	08-07-2006
2	Eusébio	64	41	08-10-1961	13-10-1973
3	Luís Figo	127	32	12-10-1991	08-07-2006
4	Nuno Gomes*	69	28	28-01-1996	11-06-2008
5	Rui Costa	94	26	31-03-1993	04-07-2004
6	João Vieira Pinto	81	23	12-10-1991	14-06-2002
7	Nené	66	22	21-04-1971	23-06-1984
8	Cristiano Ronaldo*	56	21	20-08-2003	11-06-2008
9	Rui Jordão	43	15	29-03-1972	25-01-1989
=	Fernando Peyroteo	20	15	24-04-1938	20-03-1949
=	Simão Sabrosa*	61	15	18-11-1998	11-06-2008

Trivia

• Pauleta was the lead goal scorer in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
• In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, this team set a record for the number of yellow cards received by a national team in a single World Cup: 24 in total. This was mainly due to the controversial match against Netherlands where a double figure amount of cards (yellow and red) were handed out in a game which saw two players from each team sent off. Screenshots showing Khalid Boulahrouz, Costinha and Deco sitting side by side in the stand bemused as Deco's Barcelona team mate and match opponent, Giovanni van Bronckhorst joined them in the 95th minute.
• This team won the 2006 FIFA World Cup most entertaining team award.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Romania
Nickname(s)	Tricolorii (The Tricolours)
Association	Romanian Football Federation
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Victor Piţurcă
Captain	Cristian Chivu
Most caps	Dorinel Munteanu (134)
Top scorer	Gheorghe Hagi (35)
Home stadium	Stadionul Ghencea
FIFA code	ROU
FIFA ranking	12
Highest FIFA ranking	3 (September 1997)
Lowest FIFA ranking	35 (August 2004)
Elo ranking	11
Highest Elo ranking	5 (June 1990)
Lowest Elo ranking	42 (1949, 1960)
First international
Yugoslavia 1 - 2 Romania (Belgrade, Yugoslavia; 8 June 1922)
Biggest win
Romania 9 - 0 Finland (Bucharest, Romania; 14 October 1973)
Biggest defeat
Hungary 9 - 0 Romania (Budapest, Hungary; 6 June 1948)
World Cup
Appearances	7 (First in 1930)
Best result	Quarterfinals, 1994
European Championship
Appearances	4 (First in 1984)
Best result	Quarterfinals, 2000

The Romania national football team is the national football team of Romania and is controlled by the Romanian Football Federation.

Romania is one of only four national teams, the other three being Brazil, France, and Belgium, that took part in the first three World Cups.

However, after that performance, they only qualified for 1970, 1990, 1994 and 1998 editions. Their finest hour came at the 1994 World Cup where Romania, led by Gheorghe Hagi, reached the quarterfinals, defeating Argentina in their way before losing to Sweden on penalty shootouts.

As at Euro, Romania's biggest performance was in 2000 whenthey advanced to quarterfinals from a group with Germany, Portugal and defeated England before falling to eventual runners-up Italy.

Romania also played at Euro 1984, Euro 1996 and Euro 2008.

History

Beginnings

Romania played their first international match on 8 June 1922, a 2-1 win over Yugoslavia in Belgrade, coached by Teofil Moraru.

Several temporary coaches were employed, before Moraru resumed control in August 1924, managing the side for nearly four years. Romania enjoyed some success during the 1930s; manager Costel Rădulescu took them to the first three FIFA World Cup tournaments, a feat matched only by Brazil and Belgium.

World Cups in the 1930s

At the 1930 World Cup, Romania won their first match against Peru, 3-1, with goals from Adalbert Desu, Constantin Stanciu and Nicolae Kovács, before being thrashed 4-0 by hosts and eventual winners Uruguay.

Romania qualified for the next World Cup in 1934 after beating Yugoslavia 2-1 in a repeat of their first international. At the finals, Romania played only one game in a new knock-out format, losing 2-1 to Czechoslovakia in Trieste, Italy, with Ştefan Dobay scoring their only goal of the tournament.

Romania qualified by default for the 1938 World Cup after their qualifying playoff opponents Egypt withdrew. They suffered a shock defeat in the finals in France, losing to minnows Cuba, who, like Romania, had only qualified due to the withdrawal of their qualifying opponents, Mexico. The first match at the Stade Chapou in Toulouse ended 3-3 after extra time, but Cuba won the replay four days later 2-1.

International Wilderness

Between 1938 and 1970 Romania failed to qualify for any major international tournaments.

Increasing popularity

1970 World Cup

Participation in the World Cup was finally achieved once again in 1970 in Mexico, although qualification came on the back of a 3-0 thrashing by Portugal in Lisbon and two unconvincing draws against unfancied Greece. Angelo Niculescu's promising were given the toughest of draws, in Group 3 with holders England, giants Brazil and Czechoslovakia.

A Geoff Hurst goal gave England a narrow victory in Romania's first match at the Estadio Jalisco in Guadalajara. Chances were improved with a 2-1 win over the Czechs. Despite going behind early to a Ladislav Petráš goal, Romania turned it around after half-time with Alexandru Neagu and Florea Dumitrache scoring to give them two vital points. Even then, only a win over the excellent Brazilians would take them into the Quarter Finals.

There were rumours before the match that Brazil might prefer Romania to progress than World Champions England; Despite beating them 1-0 in their previous match in Guadalajara, the South American giants still viewed England as one of their biggest obstacles to tournament victory. But Brazil played some of the best football of the competition, with Pelé scoring twice and a Jairzinho goal in between. Romania battled bravely; Dumitrache pulled the score back to 2-1 before the break and a late Emerich Dembrowski goal made it 3-2, but they were out.

1970s

On 26 September 1973, under new coach Valentin Stanculescu, Romania suffered a significant defeat to East Germany in Leipzig. The East Germans won 2-0 to effectively seal their first ever qualification for the World Cup, which would be held over the border in West Germany. With East Germany scoring a predictable 4-1 win in Albania, Romania were out, despite a huge 9-0 win over Finland in Bucharest.

Romania continued to suffer poor form in the UEFA European Championship. In their qualifying group for the 1976 European Football Championship, they were out-qualified by Spain, despite an impressive 1-1 draw in the away match. Romania failed to win matches, drawing twice with Scotland and Spain and dropping points in Denmark with a dismal goalless draw.

Romania were again beat by Spain for a place in the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Despite a 1-0 win in Bucharest, Romania lost a bizarre match at home to Yugoslavia 6-4 having led 3-2 at half time. Spain won 1-0 in Belgrade to seal passage to South America.

1980s

Romania's sole successful qualifying campaign was for the European Championships in 1984 in France. At the finals, Romania were drawn with regular rivals Spain, holders West Germany and dark horses Portugal. Under head coach Mircea Lucescu, an encouraging opening game in Saint-Étienne saw them draw with the Spanish. Francisco José Carrasco opened the scoring from the penalty spot but Romania equalized before half time with a goal from Laszlo Bölöni.

Against the Germans in Lens, Marcel Coras scored an equalizer in the first minute of the second half in response to Rudi Völler's opener, but Völler would score a winning goal. Their last match in Nantes was a must-win match, but Nené's late winner meant Portugal progressed with Spain, who netted a dramatic late winner against West Germany at the Parc des Princes in Paris.

Romania stuttered throughout the rest of the decade, but a stronger squad at the end of the decade saw them qualify for their fifth World Cup at Italia 90. A win over Denmark in their last match took Emerich Jenei's side to the finals for the first time in twenty years.

Gheorghe Hagi's era: the Golden Generation

Italia 90

Romania's squad was entirely domestic based, despite an increasing trend for the major sides in Italy and Spain buying up the best foreign talent. Midfielder Ilie Dumitrescu, striker Florin Răducioiu and genius playmaker Gheorghe Hagi, then of Steaua Bucharest, were in the squad, but it was forward Gavril Balint who would prove the hero in the first round.

With World Champions Argentina stunned by Cameroon in the tournament's opening match, Romania did their chances no harm with a convincing win over the USSR at the San Nicola in Bari, with Marius Lăcătuş scoring in either half. The result was all the more impressive given the absence of Hagi. There was controversy, however, as Lăcătus's second was a penalty given for a handball by Vagiz Khidiatulin that television replays clearly showed to be some way outside the penalty area.

Romania were the next victims of Cameroon in Bari. Cult hero Roger Milla, 38 years of age, came on as a substitute for Emmanuel Maboang Kessack and scored twice, before Balint pulled one back. Romania needed a point in their last match against improving Argentina at the San Paolo in Naples. Pedro Monzón gave Argentina the lead after an hour, but Balint quickly equalized and Romania held on to reach Round 2.

Against Jack Charlton's Ireland side in Genoa, Romania didn't have the quality to break down a defensive opposition. Daniel Timofte was the only player to miss in the penalty shoot-out - his kick saved by Packie Bonner - and Romania were out. In the process, Ireland became the smallest country ever to progress that far in a FIFA World Cup.

Euro 92 and USA 94

Romania missed out on Euro 92. Scotland qualified after Romania drew a must-win last match in Sofia against Bulgaria, with Nasko Sirakov's equalizer sealing their fate.

They were successful, though, in reaching another World Cup in the United States in 1994. Despite losing in Belgium and suffering a heavy 5-2 defeat in Czechoslovakia, Romania went into their last match at Cardiff Arms Park with Wales needing a win to pip them to a place in the finals. Goals from Gheorghe Hagi and Dean Saunders meant the game was finely balanced, before Wales were awarded a penalty. Paul Bodin of Swindon Town stepped up but hit the woodwork and Romania went on to win 2-1, Răducioiu's late goal proving unnecessary as Czechoslovakia dropped a point in Belgium and were knocked out.

At the finals, Romania were one of the most entertaining teams in the early stages with Hagi, Răducioiu and Dumitrescu on form. Romania beat Colombia - dark horses and Pelé's tip for the tournament - at the Pasadena Rose Bowl in Los Angeles 3-1. Răducioiu opened the scoring before Hagi scored a spectacular second from wide on the left touchline. Adolfo Valencia shredded their nerves with a headed goal just before half-time, but Romania held on and Răducioiu sealed the win with a late third.

In Detroit's Pontiac Silverdome, the temperature soared due to the greenhouse effect in the indoor arena. Switzerland, acclimatized after having already played the hosts there, outran Romania in the second half and turned a 1-1 half time score into a surprising 4-1 win. Romania responded by beating the hosts 1-0 in Pasadena with an early Dan Petrescu goal.

In Round 2 they faced Argentina, who were shorn of Diego Maradona who was thrown out of the tournament for taking drugs. Răducioiu, suspended, was hardly missed, as coach Anghel Iordănescu pushed Dumitrescu forward to play as a striker and the player responded by scoring twice in the first twenty minutes, one a superbly subtle left foot flick from a right-wing Hagi cross slotted between the Argentine defenders. In between, Gabriel Batistuta scored a penalty, but after half-time Romania netted a superb third on the counter attack, with Hagi beating goalkeeper Luis Islas. Abel Balbo pulled one back, but Romania held on for a shock win.

Romania would suffer penalty heartbreak again, in the Quarter Final against Sweden. With just thirteen minutes to go, a tight match opened up as Sweden's Thomas Brolin scored from a clever free-kick move, the ball passed outside the Romanian wall by Håkan Mild for Brolin to smash in. Iordănescu threw caution to the wind and the returning Răducioiu found a late equalizer, again from a free-kick move but this time down to a deflection and a failure of the Swedes to clear. In extra time Răducioiu scored again after a mistake by Patrik Andersson, but Sweden then scored their own late equalizer as giant striker Kennet Andersson climbed above goalkeeper Florin Prunea to head home a long ball. Prunea had come in after two matches to replace Bogdan Stelea, whose confidence was shattered by the 4-1 loss to the Swiss. In the shoot-out, Dan Petrescu and Miodrag Belodedici had their kicks saved by Thomas Ravelli and Sweden went through.

Euro 96

In England, Romania arrived as a highly tought-of and popular team but had a nightmare. Iordănescu's side were based in the north east, with their first two games at St James' Park in Newcastle. Against France, they lost to a Christophe Dugarry header reminiscent of Kennet Andersson's two years earlier, beating the goalkeeper to a lofted through ball. A brilliant early solo goal by Hristo Stoichkov saw Bulgaria knock out their neighbours, although Romania claimed they should have had a goal awarded when the ball struck the bar and bounced behind the goal-line. They finally scored in their last game, Florin Răducioiu equalizing an early goal by Spain's Javier Manjarín. Spain had to win to qualify with France at the expence of Bulgaria and did so when Guillermo Amor stooped to head a late winner. Romania exited with no points and little to cheer.

France 98

Despite a dreadful Euro 96, Romania impressed in qualifying, finishing ten points clear of Ireland and were seeded for the final tournament of the 1998 World Cup thanks to their strong USA 94 showing. Despite being drawn in a group with England, getting through it was perceived to be easy work with a waning Colombia and minnows Tunisia.

Adrian Ilie scored the only goal with a fine chip in their first match against Colombia at Lyon's Stade Gerland. In Toulouse, they met an England side starting with prodigal striker Michael Owen on the bench, with Teddy Sheringham preferred alongside Alan Shearer. A mistake by Tony Adams was punished by Viorel Moldovan, who played for Coventry City, before Owen came on to claim an equalizer. But Romania won with a wonderful late goal from Dan Petrescu, also playing in England with Chelsea, fighting off his club mate Graeme le Saux and nutmegging goalkeeper David Seaman.

Having already qualified, Romania bizarrely decided to bleach their hair before their last match against Tunisia. Despite England v Colombia being the more decisive game, the Stade de France in Paris was an 80,000 sell out and the crowd were nearly rewarded with a shock as Skander Souayeh scored an early penalty to give the north Africans the lead. Romania needed a point to win the group and, crucially, avoid Argentina in Round 2, and got it when Moldovan volleyed a late equalizer. It did them little good, however, as in the Round of 16 match at Bordeaux against the Croatian team, Davor Šuker scored a twice-taken penalty in a poor match and Romania were out.

Euro 2000

Romania were not expected to progress through a group containing Portugal, England and Germany. Hagi's powers were waning, Dumitrescu and Rǎducioiu were no longer on the scene and hopes were pinned on young Internazionale forward Adrian Mutu. Romania started brightly against the Germans in Liège, with Moldovan scoring from close range. A long-range Mehmet Scholl equalizer meant they had to be content with a point and their position looked shaky after Costinha headed a last minute winner for Portugal in their second match.

Emerich Jenei, back as coach, threw caution to the wind in the last match in Charleroi against England, a match which Romania had to win. Defender Cristian Chivu's cross went in off the post in the 22nd minute but, despite Romania dominating, England led at half-time through an Alan Shearer penalty and a late Michael Owen goal after he rounded Bogdan Stelea to score a tap-in, both in the last five minutes of the half. Romania attacked after the break and were quickly rewarded; Dorinel Munteanu punishing a poor punch from Nigel Martyn, a late replacement for the injured Seaman to equalize three minutes after the re-start. England cracked under the pressure. Unable to retain possession or pose an attacking threat, they fell deep and late on Phil Neville, playing out of position at left-back, conceded a penalty scored by Ioan Ganea in the 89th minute.

Romania's relief was tempered by tough opposition in the last eight, and Italy, who would end up seconds from being crowned European champions in an agonizing final, comfortably saw them off 2-0 in Brussels. Francesco Totti and Filippo Inzaghi scoring towards the end of the first half. In the 35th minute Hagi, in his final international tournament, hit the woodwork with goalkeeper Francesco Toldo stranded off his line and, after the break, was magnanimously sent off for diving. Romania's tournament was over and Jenei left his job as coach again.

Recent years

2000s - Near Misses

Romania failed to qualify for the next three major tournaments. They drew Slovenia, who had been surprise qualifiers for Euro 2000 in a playoff for a place in the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan. A narrow 2-1 deficit - having led through a Marius Niculae goal - after the first leg in Ljubljana was not irretrievable. With fans' hero Gheorghe Hagi now coaching the side they were confident of getting the win they needed in Bucharest against the Balkan upstarts, but Slovenia took the lead before the hour through Mladen Rudonja. Right wing-back Cosmin Contra quickly equalized but Romania could not find the goal they needed to force extra time and Slovenia, with maverick manager Srečko Katanec, were in a major tournament again.

Romania were confident of qualifying for Euro 2004 in Portugal, drawn in Group 2 with seeds Denmark, Norway, Bosnia-Herzegovina and minnows Luxembourg. Despite a good start - a 3-0 win away to Bosnia in Sarajevo, Romania stuttered. Steffen Iversen's late goal gave Norway a surprise win in Bucharest and they were stunned at home by the Danes, 5-2, with Thomas Gravesen scoring a spectacular goal from around fifty yards out, despite leading twice. They recovered slightly, completing a double over the Bosnians and getting a point in Oslo, but conceded a cutting injury time equalizer in Denmark to draw 2-2. It was decisive, as they now required Norway to fail to win at home to Luxembourg to stand any realistic chance of qualifying. Eventually, the Danes got a point in Bosnia to scrape through a tight group, with Norway going to a play-off with Spain.

Romania were put in a massive group for the qualifying tournament for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. Holland and Czech Republic were favourite to qualify, then ranked first and second in Europe. Early wins over Finland and Macedonia were unconvincing, and they were some way behind the two leaders by the time they earned a good 2-0 home win over the Czechs. They finished third behind the Dutch and the Czechs and missed out on another major tournament.

Romania were drawn in a group with group favourites Holland and tough opponents Bulgaria for the Euro 2008 Qualifying.

However on the 17 October 2007, Romania became the fourth team to qualify for the Euro 2008. This the team's first big championships since Euro 2000, 8 years before.

World Cup record

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1930	Round 1	2	1	0	1	3	5
1934	Round 1	1	0	0	1	1	2
1938	Round 1	2	0	1	1	4	5
1950	Did Not Enter	-	-	-	-	-	-
1954	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1958	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1962	Withdrew	-	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1970	Round 1	3	1	0	2	4	5
1974	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1978	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1982	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1986	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Round 2	4	1	2	1	4	3
1994	Quarterfinals	5	3	1	1	10	9
1998	Round 2	4	2	1	1	4	3
2002	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2006	Did Not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
Total	7/18	21	8	5	8	30	32

European Championship

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1960	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1964	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1968	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1972	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1976	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1980	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1984	Round 1	3	0	1	2	2	4
1988	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1992	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
1996	Round 1	3	0	0	3	1	4
2000	Quarterfinals	4	1	1	2	4	6
2004	Did not Qualify	-	-	-	-	-	-
2008	Qualified
Total	4/13	10	1	2	7	7	14

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Stadium

Lia Manoliu, Romania's national football stadium

The Lia Manoliu Stadium (Stadionul Lia Manoliu in Romanian) was a multi-use stadium in Bucharest, Romania. It was used mostly by the Romania national football team.

The stadium held 60,120. It was built in 1953, for the 4th World Festival of Youth and Students. It was first known as Stadionul 23 August, and later on as Stadionul Naţional (National Stadium). It is now named after Lia Manoliu, a discus thrower who competed at a record six Summer Olympics, winning three medals.

In October 2005, it was decided to rebuild the stadium completely; however, initially no funding was found, so some repairs proceeded in lieu of rebuilding. Later, funds became available and the rebuilding is expected to begin in November 2007. The plan calls for completion of a new five-star arena by April 2010, with further plans to host the 2011 UEFA Cup final. The last football match played was a 6-1 win against Albania on November 21, 2007. After the match, a few seats were removed from the stadium, as a symbolic start of the rebuilding operations. The old stadium will be demolished to make room for a new one.

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Team France Romania Serbia Lithuania Austria Faroe Islands

Current squad

Squad for UEFA Euro 2008

A provisional 26-man squad was named on 14 May 2008 for UEFA Euro 2008. Four players were removed before the final 23-man squad was announced on 28 May:

• 14 May - Ovidiu Petre, due to injury.
• 23 May - Dănuţ Coman, due to injury. Eduard Stăncioiu was called as a replacement.
• 28 May - Ciprian Deac and Florin Bratu, eliminated from final squad

Caps and goals correct as of 31 May 2008.

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club 1 GK Bogdan Lobonţ January 18, 1978 (1978-01-18) (age 30) 63 0 F.C. Dinamo Bucureşti 2 DF Cosmin Contra December 15, 1975 (1975-12-15) (age 32) 63 7 Getafe CF 3 DF Răzvan Raţ May 26, 1981 (1981-05-26) (age 27) 48 1 FC Shakhtar Donetsk 4 DF Gabriel Tamaş November 9, 1984 (1984-11-09) (age 23) 32 2 AJ Auxerre 5 DF Cristian Chivu October 26, 1980 (1980-10-26) (age 27) 59 3 F.C. Internazionale Milano 6 DF Mirel Rădoi March 22, 1981 (1981-03-22) (age 27) 43 1 FC Steaua Bucureşti 7 MF Florentin Petre January 15, 1976 (1976-01-15) (age 32) 50 5 PFC CSKA Sofia 8 MF Paul Codrea April 4, 1981 (1981-04-04) (age 27) 33 1 A.C. Siena 9 FW Ciprian Marica October 2, 1985 (1985-10-02) (age 22) 24 8 VfB Stuttgart 10 FW Adrian Mutu January 8, 1979 (1979-01-08) (age 29) 61 28 ACF Fiorentina 11 MF Răzvan Cociş February 19, 1983 (1983-02-19) (age 25) 21 1 FC Lokomotiv Moscow 12 GK Marius Popa July 31, 1978 (1978-07-31) (age 29) 2 0 Politehnica 1921 Ştiinţa Timişoara 13 DF Cristian Săpunaru April 5, 1984 (1984-04-05) (age 24) 1 0 FC Rapid Bucureşti 14 DF Sorin Ghionea May 11, 1979 (1979-05-11) (age 29) 10 1 FC Steaua Bucureşti 15 DF Dorin Goian December 12, 1981 (1981-12-12) (age 26) 19 3 FC Steaua Bucureşti 16 MF Bănel Nicoliţă January 7, 1985 (1985-01-07) (age 23) 20 1 FC Steaua Bucureşti 17 DF Cosmin Moţi December 3, 1984 (1984-12-03) (age 23) 2 0 F.C. Dinamo Bucureşti 18 FW Marius Niculae May 16, 1981 (1981-05-16) (age 27) 30 13 Inverness Caledonian Thistle F.C. 19 MF Adrian Cristea November 30, 1983 (1983-11-30) (age 24) 6 0 F.C. Dinamo Bucureşti 20 MF Nicolae Dică May 9, 1980 (1980-05-09) (age 28) 25 8 FC Steaua Bucureşti 21 FW Daniel Niculae October 6, 1982 (1982-10-06) (age 25) 22 5 AJ Auxerre 22 DF Ştefan Radu October 22, 1986 (1986-10-22) (age 21) 8 0 S.S. Lazio 23 GK Eduard Stăncioiu March 3, 1981 (1981-03-03) (age 27) 1 0 CFR Cluj

Coaching staff

Head Coach	Victor Piţurcă
Assistant Coaches	Ştefan Iovan
	Gabriel Boldici
	Dan Apolzan
Fitness Coach	Marian Lupu
Team Doctor	Pompiliu Popescu
Masseurs	Roger Popovici
	Victor Hexan
	Ionel Buduga

Famous players

Ioan Andone Alexandru Apolzan Iuliu Baratky Silviu Bindea Iuliu Bodola Ilie Balaci Miodrag Belodedici László Bölöni Rodion Cămătaru Cristian Chivu (*) Liviu Ciobotariu Cosmin Contra (*) Ştefan Dobay Nicolae Dobrin Cornel Dinu

Florea Dumitrache Ion Dumitru Ilie Dumitrescu Emerich Dembrovschi Ionel Ganea Gheorghe Hagi Adrian Ilie Sabin Ilie Anghel Iordănescu Michael Klein Viorel Moldovan Marius Lăcătuş Bogdan Lobonţ (*) Mircea Lucescu

Ioan Lupescu Silviu Lung Bazil Marian Dorin Mateuţ Dorinel Munteanu (*) Adrian Mutu (*) Marius Niculae (*) Titus Ozon Dan Petrescu Gabriel Popescu Gheorghe Popescu Mirel Rădoi (*) Iosif Petschovsky Daniel Prodan

Florin Prunea Marcel Răducanu Necula Răducanu Florin Răducioiu Mircea Rednic Ioan Ovidiu Sabău Tibor Selymes Bogdan Stelea (*) Costică Ştefănescu Ovidiu Stinga Alin Stoica (*) Tudorel Stoica Nicolae Ungureanu Ion Vladoiu

• (*) - still active

Most capped players

As of February 12, 2007, the ten players with the most caps for Romania are:

#	Name	Career	Caps	Goals
1.	Dorinel Munteanu	1991 - 2007	134	16
2.	Gheorghe Hagi	1983 - 2000	125	35
3.	Gheorghe Popescu	1988 - 2003	115	16
4.	Ladislau Bölöni	1975 - 1988	108	23
5.	Dan Petrescu	1989 - 2000	95	12
6.	Bogdan Stelea (*)	1988 - 2005	91	0
7.	Michael Klein	1981 - 1991	90	5
8.	Marius Lăcătuş	1984 - 1998	84	13
9.	Mircea Rednic	1981 - 1991	83	2
10.	Silviu Lung	1979 - 1993	77	0

• (*) - Active, but only for club.

Top goalscorers

As of June 1, 2008, the ten players with the most goals for Romania are:

#	Player	Career	Goals (Caps)
1.	Gheorghe Hagi	1983 - 2000	35 (125)
2.	Iuliu Bodola	1931 - 1939	30 (48)
3.	Adrian Mutu (*)	2000 - present	28 (61)
4.	Anghel Iordănescu	1971 - 1981	26 (64)
5.	Viorel Moldovan	1993 - 2005	25 (70)
6.	Ladislau Bölöni	1975 - 1988	23 (108)
7.	Rodion Cămătaru	1978 - 1990	22 (75)
8.	Dudu Georgescu	1973 - 1984	21 (40)
9.	Florin Răducioiu	1990 - 2000	21 (40)
10.	Ştefan Dobay	1930 - 1939	20 (41)

• (*) - still active

Past managers

Teofil Moraru 1922 - 1923 Costel Rădulescu 1923 Adrian Suciu 1923 - 1924 Teofil Moraru 1924 - 1928 Costel Rădulescu 1923 - 1934 Josef Uridil 1934 Alexandru Săvulescu 1934 - 1935 Costel Rădulescu 1935 - 1938 Alexandru Săvulescu 1938 Liviu Iuga 1938 - 1939 Virgil Economu 1939 - 1940 Liviu Iuga 1940 Virgil Economu 1941 - 1942 Jean Lăpuşneanu 1942 - 1943 Emerich Vogl 1942 - 1943 Coloman Braun-Bogdan 1945 Virgil Economu 1946 Colea Vâlcov 1947 Emerich Vogl 1947 Francisc Ronnay 1947

Emerich Vogl 1947 Colea Vâlcov 1948 Petre Steinbach 1948 Iuliu Baratky 1948 Emerich Vogl 1948 Colea Vâlcov 1949 Emerich Vogl 1949 Ion Mihăilescu 1949 Gheorghe Albu 1950 Volodea Vâlcov 1950 Emerich Vogl 1950 - 1951 Gheorghe Popescu I 1951 - 1957 Augustin Botescu 1958 - 1960 Gheorghe Popescu I 1961 Constantin Teaşcă 1962 Gheorghe Popescu I 1962 Silviu Ploeşteanu 1962 - 1964 Valentin Stănescu 1964 Silviu Ploeşteanu 1964 Ilie Oană 1965 - 1966

Valentin Stănescu 1967 Ilie Oană 1967 Angelo Niculescu 1967 Constantin Teaşcă 1967 Angelo Niculescu 1967 - 1970 Valentin Stănescu 1971 Angelo Niculescu 1971 Valentin Stănescu 1971 Angelo Niculescu 1971 Valentin Stănescu 1971 Angelo Niculescu 1971 Gheorghe Ola 1972 Angelo Niculescu 1972 Gheorghe Ola 1972 Angelo Niculescu 1972 Gheorghe Ola 1972 Valentin Stănescu 1973 - 1975 Cornel Drăguşin 1975 Stefan Kovacs 1976 - 1979 Florin Halagian 1979

Constantin Cernăianu 1979 Stefan Kovacs 1980 Valentin Stănescu 1980 - 1981 Mircea Lucescu 1981 - 1986 Emerich Jenei 1986 - 1990 Gheorghe Constantin 1990 Mircea Rădulescu 1990 - 1992 Cornel Dinu 1992 - 1993 Anghel Iordănescu 1993 - 1998 Victor Piţurcă 1998 - 1999 Emerich Jenei 2000 Ladislau Bölöni 2000 - 2001 Gheorghe Hagi 2001 - 2002 Anghel Iordănescu 2002 - 2004 Victor Piţurcă 2005 -

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

Spain
Nickname(s)	La Selección (The Selection) La Furia Roja (The Red Fury) La Roja (The Red)
Association	Real Federación Española de Fútbol
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Luis Aragonés (until July 2008)
Captain	Iker Casillas
Most caps	Andoni Zubizarreta (126)
Top scorer	Raúl González (44)
FIFA code	ESP
FIFA ranking	4
Highest FIFA ranking	2 (December 1994)
Lowest FIFA ranking	25 (March 1998)
Elo ranking	4
Highest Elo ranking	1 (1920, 1921, 1925, 2002)
Lowest Elo ranking	20 (June 1969, June 1981)
First international
Spain 1 - 0 Denmark (Brussels, Belgium; 28 August 1920)
Biggest win
Spain 13 - 0 Bulgaria (Madrid, Spain; 21 May 1933)
Biggest defeat
Italy 7 - 1 Spain (Amsterdam, Netherlands; 4 June 1928) England 7 - 1 Spain (London, England; 9 December 1931)
World Cup
Appearances	12 (First in 1934)
Best result	Fourth place, 1950
European Championship
Appearances	7 (First in 1964)
Best result	Winners, 1964

Olympic medal record
Men’s Football
Silver	1920 Antwerp
Gold	1992 Barcelona
Silver	2000 Sydney

The Spain National Football Team, commonly referred to as La Furia, is the national football team of Spain and is controlled by the Real Federación Española de Fútbol.

Spain has a reputation for underachievement in the FIFA World Cup, with their best finish being fourth place in 1950 despite often being among the pre-tournament favourites. They often start well, but struggle considerably in the later stages, which is frustrating given the team's supposedly enormous talent and diligence. They are considered by some as football's greatest underachievers. Their only senior level tournament victory is the 1964 European Championship, which they hosted. They also won the gold medal when they hosted the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and in the 1999 World Youth Championship in Nigeria. Their current FIFA ranking is 4th.

History

Early Years

Spain made their international football debut in 1920 at the Olympic Games in Antwerp and won the silver medal. They played their first home international in 1921, beating Belgium 2-0 in Bilbao. They also became the first non-British side to beat England when they won 4-3 in a friendly in Madrid in 1929. Spain however did not enter the 1930 World Cup. Four years later, Spain qualified for the second World Cup in Italy in 1934 and progressed to the quarterfinals where the lost to Italy 1-0 in a replay after a 1-1 draw. The Spanish Civil War and World War II did not see Spain play a competitive match until the 1950 World Cup.

They reached the final four-team group, consisting of the four group winners. The other winners were Brazil, Uruguay, and Sweden. Early success in the tournament eluded them as they gained only one point after losing to Brazil and Sweden and drawing with Uruguay. The 1950 World Cup would be Spain's best ever finish. After the 1950 World Cup Spain entered a period of football wildernes and did not make another major appearance until Euro 60.

Under French-Argentine coach Helenio Herrera, Spain came out of a period of wilderness to qualify for the first European Championship in 1960. At Euro 60, Spain entered into the quarter finals and beat Poland 7-2 on aggregate. However, after a protest against the USSR, Spain was automatically knocked out of the competition.

European Champions and the Villalonga Era

In 1962 José Villalonga was appointed coach of Spain. Villalonga qualified Spain for the World Cup in 1962 but exited in the first round after facing a tough group 3 consisting of Brazil, Czechoslovakia, and Mexico. Two years later they won the European Championship. With a squad that included Luis Suárez, Francisco Gento, Josep Fusté and José Ángel Iribar, Spain beat Romania, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland in the qualifying rounds before hosting the semi-finals and final. In the semi-finals Spain beat highly favored Hungary 2-1. In the final, Spain beat the USSR 2-1 in front of a crowd of 90,000 at the Bernabéu. Jesus María Pereda put Spain ahead after just six minutes but they needed a late Marcelino Martínez header to win it after Galimzian Khusainov equalised with a free-kick.

As European Champions, Spain qualified for the 1966 World Cup with much of the 1964 squad under José Villalonga but failed to make an impression as they exited in the first round after losing to West Germany and Argentina but defeating Switzerland.

1968 to 1975

The departure of Villalonga put Spain into another period of wilderness with mixed results. They were knocked out by England in the quarterfinals of the 1968 European Championship knockout stages and did not make it to the final tournament held in Italy. Spain did not qualify for another tournament until Euro 76.

Post Francoist Spain, Late 70s and Early 80s

Spain ended a period of wilderness with an impressive undefeated performance in their Euro 76 qualifying group which featured Romania, Scotland, and Denmark. Spain exited in the quarterfinals having been defeated by Germany 3-1 on aggregate.

The 1978 World Cup witnessed Spain comeback to their first world cup since 1966. Spain qualified having defeated Yugoslavia home and away only losing to Romania in Bucharest. In the final tournament Spain were drawn into group 3 with Brazil, Austria, and Sweden. Spain's fortune ended in the first round when they lost to Austria 2-1, drew with Brazil 0-0, and defeated Sweden 1-0.

Euro 80 saw Spain qualify for the first eight-team European championship. After suprassing Romania, Yugoslavia, and Cyprus, Spain was drawn into group B with England, Italy, and Belgium. Spain proved to be the weakest side of the group as they gained only one point after a draw with Italy and losses to England and Belgium.

1982 World Cup in Spain

In 1976 Spain was selected as host of the 1982 FIFA World Cup. This edition of the World Cup featured 24 teams for the first time. Expectations were high for Spain as the host nation under coach José Santamaría. In the group stages, Spain was drawn into Group 5 with Northern Ireland, Yugoslavia, and Honduras. Under pressure to perform well, Spain struggled through their group. On their first day of competition, they could only manage a 1-1 draw with unfancied Honduras. They picked up momentum with an impressive 2-1 victory against Yugoslavia but were defeated 1-0 by Northern Ireland. Despite the defeat, Spain progressed to the second round. Spain was drawn into Group B in the second round with West Germany and England. Spain's campaign ended when they were defeated by West Germany 2-1 and drew 0-0 with England, and as disappointment swept the country, Santamaría was sacked.

1984 to 1988

After a disappointing World Cup campaign on home soil, Spain were desperate to regain their credibility on the world footballing stage. Former Real Madrid coach Miguel Muñoz, who had temporarily coached Spain in 1969, returned to the national side. Spain topped Euro 84 qualifying Group 7, which consisted of the Netherlands, Republic of Ireland, Iceland, and Malta. Spain passed the qualifying stage unexpectedly, as they had to defeat Malta by an 11-0 scoreline. They did with a 12-1 scoreline (after 3-1 in halftime). In the final tournament, Spain were dubbed as outsiders by bookmakers despite many talented players and a strong football league. Spain were drawn into group B with West Germany, Portugal, and Romania. In their first game, they drew 1-1 with underdogs Romania. Three days later they drew 1-1 again with Portugal. Spain topped the group with an impressive 1-0 victory over West Germany to avenge their defeat two years earlier. The semifinals paired Spain with darkhorses Denmark. After 1-1 at extra time Spain defeated Denmark 5-4 on penalties after Preben Elkjær shot over the bar. Going beyond anyone's expectations Spain reached the final to face the hosts and tournament favorites France. Led by captain Michel Platini, France were tipped as heavy favorites yet Spain however were not shunned out having gone beyond anyone's expectations. Spain were defeated 2-0 after a goalless first half and finished a runners up to create their second-best finish in European Championship history.

To build on their impressive Euro 84 performance, Muñoz helped Spain qualify for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Spain progressed in qualifying having topped Group 7 with Scotland, Wales, and Iceland. Muñoz took Spain to Mexico with a mixed squad of new and veteran players. Spain's group in the final tournament consisted of Brazil, Northern Ireland, and Algeria. Spain began the tournament nervously losing to Brazil 1-0. However, they progressed after 2-1 and 3-0 victories over Northern Ireland and Algeria respectively. Round 2 paired Spain with Denmark who topped their group from all three victories. In what was one of the strangest World Cup games, Spain defeated Denmark 5-1 with Emilio Butragueño scoring four goals. Spain progressed to the quarterfinals to face Belgium who had impressively defeated the USSR 4-3. Spain's quarter-final with Belgium finished 1-1 after extra time failed to produce a goal. Their 1986 campaign ended when they were defeated 5-4 on penalties. Despite their quarterfinal exit, the squad of 1986 was the highest scoring Spanish team.

Muñoz was retained as coach for Euro 88. As in the several previous tournaments Spain qualified impressively in a group with Austria, Romania, and Albania. Spain were drawn into group A with West Germany, Italy, and Denmark. They began their tournament with a 3-2 victory over Denmark. However, their luck ended when they were knocked out in the group stage after defeats respective 1-0 and 2-0 to Italy and West Germany.

1990 to 1992

The 90s began with Spain looking to perform well and compensate for poor performances at Euro 88 at the 1990 World Cup in Italy. For 1990, Spain's new coach Luis Suárez selected many new players including Manuel Jiménez, Genar Andrinúa, and Martín Vázquez. Spain qualified from a group consisting of Republic of Ireland, Hungary, Northern Ireland, and Malta. Before the tournament Spain looked impressive by going almost undefeated in their friendly and qualifier games. In the final tournament Spain was in group E with Belgium, Uruguay, and Korea Republic. Spain began with a less than impressive 0-0 draw with Uruguay. They later defeated Korea 3-1 and avenged Belgium 2-1 after 1986. Spain's impressive first round performance was tarnished by a 2-1 defeat to Yugoslavia in the second round. As a reuslt Spain exited earlier than expected had disappointed their fans for not improving on their 1986 campaign.

Further disappointment followed when newly appointed coach Vicente Miera failed to qualify Spain for Euro 92 after finishing third in a group behind France and Czechoslovakia. Vicente Miera did however lead Spain to the gold medal at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

Clemente's reign, 1992-98

Javier Clemente was appointed as Spain's coach in 1992 in hopes of bringing home a major international trophy. The 1994 World Cup was once again a testing ground for Spain's ability to perform well at the senior level. Spain qualified very impressively with nineteen points from twelve matches, a twenty three goal differential, and ranked as number five in Europe. In the final tournament Spain were drawn in Group C with Germany, Bolivia, and Korea Republic. The Spaniards were expected to easily progress to the second round alongside Germany. In their first game Spain drew with Korea 2-2 having given up a 2-0 lead. Three days later they drew 1-1 with Germany also giving up the lead. Spain qualified for the second round as expected with a 3-1 victory over Bolivia. Spain continued their success in the second round with a 3-0 victory over Switzerland. Their success ended with a controversial 2-1 defeat to Italy in the quarter-finals. A nasty and bloody foul committed by Mauro Tassotti towards Luis Enrique left the Spanish midfielder's nose broken in the penalty box, but with no penalty call given, Roberto Baggio would score the game winner for Italy in the last minutes. The 1994 campaign was seen as one of Spain's best despite the disappointment. Spain were once again left searching for a performance beyond the quarter-finals.

Clemente was hoping to build on their impressive yet disappointing performance in 1994 to perform well at Euro 96. Spain qualified as expected with impressive results from their group consisting of Denmark, Belgium, Cyprus, Macedonia, and Armenia. The final tournament witnessed Spain in a group with France, Romania, and Bulgaria. Their first game once again proved to be below expectations as they failed to beat Bulgaria and drew 1-1. After Bulgaria, Spain faced what proved to be a very strong French side but fought to sluggish 1-1 draw. Spain confirmed their place in the quarter-finals with a 2-1 win over a weak Romanian squad. In their quarter-final match with host England, Spain ran out of luck as they had a pair of goals questionably disallowed and were denied two possible penalties[1]. Spain eventually fell 4-2 in the shootout.

In his second World Cup as Spain's coach, Clemente put his team through intensive training to try to put themselves as serious contenders to do well at the 1998 World Cup in France after yet another dismal performance at Euro 96. Many new rising stars such as Raúl González and Fernando Morientes were giving Spanish fans hope for the upcoming tournament. Despite falling in the world rankings to a record low before the World Cup, Spain went undefeated in their qualifying group with Yugoslavia and Czech Republic being the other contenders. Spain qualified with fourteen other European sides in the first ever thirty-two team World Cup. Group D consisted of Spain, Bulgaria, Paraguay, and Nigeria, many considered this group to be the Group of Death of the entire tournament. In their first game against African powers Nigeria, Spain led 1-0 and 2-1 in each half with much superiority. However, Nigeria amazingly turned the game around in the last twenty minutes and won 3-2 largely in part by an error made by all-time capped Spanish goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta. This defeat left Spain's hopeful campaign in ruins and sent Javier Clemente searching for answers. Their second game was a minor improvement, but left Spanish fans disappointed once again as Spain could only manage a 0-0 draw with Paraguay. After only a point from their first two games, Spain needed to rely on Nigeria and Paraguay drawing their match in order to qualify. In their last group game Spain fought valiantly to crush Bulgaria 6-1 hoping that goal differential would send them through. Spain's hopes did not go as planned as Paraguay defeated Nigeria 3-1. Spain were eliminated in the first round with only four points and finished third behind Paraguay and Nigeria. This was by far one of the most disappointing Spanish campaigns in recent times.

Euro 2000 and World Cup 2002

After a 3-2 opening defeat to Cyprus in Euro 2000 qualifying Clemente was sacked and José Antonio Camacho was promptly appointed as coach. Camacho immediately turned Spain's campaign around and Spain won the rest of their games to qualify for Euro 2000. Once again Spain's hopes rested on a new coach and young players such as Raúl González, Fernando Morientes, Míchel Salgado, and Juan Carlos Valerón. In the final tournament Spain were in group C with Norway, Slovenia, and Yugoslavia. As always, Spain started their campaign with disappointment, losing 1-0 to Norway. But Spain got back into the tournament with a 2-1 victory over Slovenia. Their last game proved to be another nerve wreck as they looked to be going out of the tournament. Their last game was against Balkan powerhouse Yugoslavia. Spain started the match nervously by going down 1-0 with a Yugoslavian goal from Milošević. Alfonso Pérez was able to put a goal back for Spain in the 38th minute ending the first half with a 1-1 score. However, shortly after halftime Spain went down again 2-1 but made it 2-2 on 51 minutes with a goal by Pedro Munitis. Spain went down yet again 3-2 for the third time at 75 minutes. With only fifteen minutes left Spain desperately searched for an equalizer. After throwing every player forward Spain was still down 3-2, but at the 90th minute another Spanish goal from a late penalty by Gaizka Mendieta and a dramatic second goal by Alfonso Pérez in the dying seconds of stoppage time turned the game around making the final score 4-3 for Spain. Spain finished at the top of group C to book a quarterfinal clash with 1998 World Cup Champions, France. After a dramatic clash with Yugoslavia, Spain were confident in shocking the world champions. The game began with a dramatic first half with bombardment of both goals. The half ended 2-1 for France despite a late penalty for Spain which was missed by Raúl. Despite a strong Spanish attack France held on to win and knock Spain out prematurely. Disappointment and saddness swept Spain as the team could not impress their fans and suffered yet another quarterfinal exit.

Spain hoped once again for a good World Cup impression in 2002 in the Far East. Qualifying went as expected for Spain as they topped an easy group consisting of Austria, Israel, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Liechtenstein. Under Camacho Spain hoped that lessons learned from Euro 2000 would bring them better luck. In the final tournament Spain were drawn into group B with Slovenia, Paraguay, and South Africa. This time Spain began the World Cup very strongly with 3-1 victories over Slovenia and Paraguay and a 3-2 victory over South Africa. Spain topped the group with nine points to face off a second round contest with the Republic of Ireland. Goals by Fernando Morientes for Spain and Robbie Keane for the Republic of Ireland led both teams to a penalty shootout. After several misses and scores from both sides, Spain came out on top with a 3-2 victory. Spain booked a quarterfinal berth with hosts Korea Republic who upset Italy in round two. Spanish fans were confident this was the year Spain was to progress beyond the quarterfinals in any major tournament since Euro 84. After a hard fought 120 minutes and disallowed goals, Spain faced another penalty shootout. Spain scored three penalties as did Korea. However, Spain's worst nightmare became reality after Joaquín had his penalty saved. Korea scored their last two penalties through Ahn Jung-Hwan and Hong Myung-Bo to knock Spain out of the 2002 World Cup. Spanish fans were shocked by another successive quarterfinal exit.

Euro 2004

At Euro 2004 in Portugal, Spain were drawn into group A with Portugal, Russia and Greece. After coming into second after Greece in qualifying, Spain looked very strong. The Spanish team were touted as heavy favorites for the 2004 crown by the European media. They possessed new and fresh players such as Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso under new coach Iñaki Sáez. Spain were also hoping that the tournaments proximity would contribute to their success. On June 12th, Spain expectedly defeated Russia, 1-0, the goal scored by Juan Carlos Valerón just 36 seconds after coming on with various opportunities to increase the victory, such as a miss kick from Joseba Etxeberría against a virtually open goal,[2] and a disallowed goal from Xabi Alonso for tapping the ball with his hand after heading it over Sergei Ovchinnikov. Four days later Spain faced Greece. Determined to win, Spain led the match until Greece scored an equalizer and the match ended 1-1. In their last game against Portugal, Spain needed to draw to qualify for the quarterfinals. However, a goal from Nuno Gomes faded Spain's hopes of advancing. The same day Greece were defeated 2-1 by Russia but moved ahead to claim second place on goal difference. As a result Spain were eliminated from Euro 2004 in the first round that consisted of the tournament's eventual finalists in Portugal and Greece. This exit was considered the most disappointing result since the 1998 World Cup. Iñaki Sáez was sacked only weeks later and replaced by Luis Aragonés.

2006 World Cup

Under Luis Aragonés, Spain struggled throughout the 2006 World Cup qualifying stage. Spain were in group 7 with Serbia & Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Belgium, Lithuania, and San Marino. Despite mixed results including five wins and draws, Spain qualified for a playoff spot with Slovakia. Spain qualified for the final tournament after defeating Slovakia 6-2 on aggregate. Many didn't know what to expect of Spain heading into Germany; despite almost failing to qualify, the Spanish side had many talented players. Spain were drawn into Group H with Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia. Spain won their opening game over Ukraine in a comfortable 4-0 result, with two goals from David Villa and one each for Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso. The first penalty of the tournament was awarded after Vladislav Vaschuk was sent off for pulling on Torres. Spain won their second game against Tunisia 3-1. A goal in the 8th minute through Jawhar Mnari put Tunisia ahead, but Spain scored through Raúl in the 71st min and Fernando Torres in the 76th min. Fernando Torres scored from the penalty spot in injury time to get his second goal in the game. Spain beat Saudi Arabia by 1-0 in Kaiserslautern on the 23 June. However Spain fell 3-1 in the second round by the more experienced France team. Spanish fans once again faced a premature exit and a performance below expectations. Spain and Brazil shared the 2006 FIFA Fair Play Award.

Euro 2008

Spain started its qualifying round on September 2, 2006 for Euro 2008 by beating Liechtenstein 4-0 in Badajoz. They were then upset by Northern Ireland 3-2 in Belfast on September 6, 2006. A second straight defeat - a 2-0 loss to Sweden - followed on October 7, 2006. However, a 2-1 win against Denmark on March 24, 2007 in Madrid, along with a goal from Andrés Iniesta giving Spain a 1-0 victory at home to Iceland on March 28, 2007 put new life into Spain's campaign. On June 2, they won 2-0 at Latvia, and four days later they won against Liechtenstein 2-0. Both goals were scored by David Villa in that game. Spain's hopes for a 5-match winning streak were halted at Reykjavik, when Iceland held Spain to a 1-1 draw. Iniesta managed to save the point for Spain after he scored a late goal in that match. Their winning ways resumed at Oviedo, when Xavi and Torres gave Spain a 2-0 win against Latvia. Spain's next opponent was Denmark, who they defeated 3-1 at Aarhus. On November 18, 2007, Spain beat Sweden 3-0 with goals from Joan Capdevila, Andres Iniesta, and Sergio Ramos, qualifying for Euro 2008. On 21 November, they got revenge on Northern Ireland by beating them 1-0, thereby preventing them from qualifying.

In preparation for the tournament, manager Luis Aragonés spoke confidently, but not without a bit of sarcasm, of Spain's chances to make it out of their group, "Sure, it's going to be easy for us; all we have to do is to beat Sweden who historically have better results than us, down Greece who are the reigning champions and then Russia and all that will be easy"

On Tuesday 10th June 2008, Spain beat Russia 4-1 when David Villa scored the first hat-trick of the competition. Later in the match, Cesc Fabregas scored a diving head in the last minute to complete the victory.

On Saturday 14th June 2008, Spain defeated Sweden 2-1 when powerhouse David Villa scored in stoppage time. Villa beat out two Swedish defenders and finally Swedish goalie Issakson for the win.

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification

Team Spain Turkey Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Armenia Estonia

Kits

Spain's traditional kit was a red jersey with yellow trim with dark blue shorts and socks. Their current change kit is with a gold jersey. The kits are currently manufactured by Adidas.

World Cup record

Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1934	Quarter-final	5	3	1	1	1	4	3
1950	Fourth place	4	6	3	1	2	10	12
1962	Round 1	12	3	1	0	2	2	3
1966	Round 1	10	3	1	0	2	4	5
1978	Round 1	10	3	1	1	1	2	2
1982	Round 2	12	5	1	2	2	4	5
1986	Quarter-final	7	5	3	1	1	11	4
1990	Round of 16	10	4	2	1	1	6	4
1994	Quarter-final	8	5	2	2	1	10	6
1998	Round 1	17	3	1	1	1	8	4
2002	Quarter-final	5	5	3	2	0	10	5
2006	Round of 16	9	4	3	0	1	9	4
Total	12/18	-	49	22	12	15	80	57

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Spain national football team head to head

Current squad

#	Name	DOB	Club	Caps (goals)
Goalkeepers
1	Iker Casillas	20 May 1981 (age 27)	Real Madrid	79 (0)
13	Andrés Palop	22 October 1973 (age 34)	Sevilla	0 (0)
23	José Reina	31 August 1982 (age 25)	Liverpool	9 (0)
Defenders
2	Raúl Albiol	4 September 1985 (age 22)	Valencia	5 (0)
3	Fernando Navarro	25 June 1982 (age 26)	Mallorca	1 (0)
4	Carlos Marchena	31 July 1979 (age 28)	Valencia	44 (2)
5	Carles Puyol	13 April 1978 (age 30)	Barcelona	63 (1)
11	Joan Capdevila	3 February 1978 (age 30)	Villarreal	20 (3)
15	Sergio Ramos	30 March 1986 (age 22)	Real Madrid	36 (4)
18	Álvaro Arbeloa	17 January 1983 (age 25)	Liverpool	2 (0)
20	Juanito Gutiérrez	23 July 1976 (age 31)	Real Betis	23 (2)
Midfielders
6	Andrés Iniesta	11 May 1984 (age 24)	Barcelona	25 (4)
8	Xavi Hernández	25 January 1980 (age 28)	Barcelona	60 (7)
10	Cesc Fàbregas	4 May 1987 (age 21)	Arsenal	28 (1)
12	Santi Cazorla	13 December 1984 (age 23)	Villarreal	4 (0)
14	Xabi Alonso	25 November 1981 (age 26)	Liverpool	43 (1)
19	Marcos Senna	17 July 1976 (age 31)	Villarreal	13 (0)
21	David Silva	8 January 1986 (age 22)	Valencia	16 (2)
22	Rubén de la Red	5 July 1985 (age 22)	Real Madrid	2 (0)
Strikers
7	David Villa	3 December 1981 (age 26)	Valencia	33 (18)
9	Fernando Torres	20 March 1984 (age 24)	Liverpool	51 (16)
16	Sergio García	9 June 1983 (age 25)	Zaragoza	1 (0)
17	Dani Güiza	17 August 1980 (age 27)	Mallorca	4 (0)

Players

Notable players

Players are ordered by year of debut with national football team

1920 Ricardo Zamora (GK) Josep Samitier (MF) 1928 Jacinto Quincoces (DF) 1934 Isidro Lángara (FW) Luis Regueiro (FW) 1936 Ángel Zubieta (DF) 1945 Telmo Zarra (FW) Agustín Gaínza (FW) 1949 Estanislao Basora (FW) 1950 Antoni Ramallets 1951 Paulino Alcántara (FW) 1953 Ladislao Kubala (MF/FW) 1955 Francisco Gento (MF)

1957 Alfredo di Stéfano (FW) Luis Suárez (MF) 1958 José Santamaría (DF) 1961 Ferenc Puskás (FW) 1962 Amancio Amaro (FW) 1963 Carlos Lapetra (FW) 1964 José Ángel Iribar (GK) Pirri (MF) Marcelino Martínez (MF) 1965 Luis Aragonés (FW) 1969 Salvador Sadurní (GK) 1970 Quini (FW) 1975 Vicente del Bosque (MF) Jesús María Satrústegui (FW) 1977 Luis Arconada (GK)

1978 Rafael Gordillo (MF) Carlos Alonso González "Santillana" (FW) 1981 Víctor Muñoz (MF) 1982 José Antonio Camacho (DF) 1984 Emilio Butragueño (FW) 1985 Andoni Zubizarreta (GK) Míchel (MF) 1986 Manuel Sanchís Hontiyuelo (DF) Julio Salinas (FW) 1989 Fernando Hierro (DF) 1991 Miguel Ángel Nadal (DF) Luis Enrique (MF) 1992 Pep Guardiola (MF) Alfonso Pérez (FW) 1993 Santiago Cañizares (GK) Julen Guerrero (FW) 1994 Sergi Barjuán (DF)

1996 Raúl González (FW) 1998 Juan Carlos Valerón (MF) Fernando Morientes (FW) 1999 Gaizka Mendieta (MF) 2000 Iker Casillas (GK) Carles Puyol (DF) Xavi (MF) 2001 David Albelda (MF) 2003 Xabi Alonso (MF) Fernando Torres (FW) 2005 José Manuel Reina (GK) Sergio Ramos (DF) David Villa (FW) 2006 Cesc Fàbregas (MF) Andrés Iniesta (MF) David Silva (MF)

Top Spain goalscorers

As of June 14, 2008, the twenty players with the most goals for Spain are:

#	Player	Career	Goals (Caps)
1	Raúl	1996-2006	44 (102)
2	Fernando Hierro	1989-2002	29 (89)
3	Fernando Morientes	1998-2007	27 (47)
4	Emilio Butragueño	1984-1992	26 (69)
5	Alfredo Di Stéfano	1957-1961	23 (31)
=	Julio Salinas	1986-1996	23 (56)
7	Míchel	1985-1992	21 (66)
8	Telmo Zarraonaindía	1945-1951	20 (20)
9	David Villa	2005-	18 (33)
10	Isidro Lángara	1932-1936	17 (12)

Selected Managers

• Francisco Bru, 1920
  Pedro Parages, 1923-1924
  Paulino Alcántara,1951
  Ricardo Zamora, 1952
  Pedro Escartín Morán, 1952-1961
  Helenio Herrera, 1959-1962
  José Villalonga, 1962-1966
  Domingo Balmanya, 1966-1968
  Luis Molowny, 1969
  Miguel Muñoz, 1969, 1982-1988
  Ladislao Kubala, 1969-1980
  José Santamaria, 1980-1982
  Luis Suárez, 1988-1991
  Vicente Miera, 1991-1992
  Javier Clemente, 1992-1998
  José Antonio Camacho, 1998-2002
  Iñaki Sáez, 2002-2004
  Luis Aragonés, 2004-2008

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.