The Guyana national football team, nicknamed the ''Golden Jaguars'', represents

Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...

in international football and is controlled by the

Guyana Football Federation The Guyana Football Federation is the governing body of football in Guyana. It controls the Guyana national football team The Guyana national football team, nicknamed the ''Golden Jaguars'', represents Guyana in international football and i ...

. It is one of three South American nations to be a member of the

Caribbean Football Union The Caribbean Football Union (CFU) is the representative organization for football associations in the Caribbean. It represents 25 FIFA member nations, as well as 6 territories that are not affiliated to FIFA. The Union was established in Januar ...

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

alongside

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

and

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

. Until the independence of Guyana in 1966, it competed as

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

. They qualified for the

Caribbean Nations Cup The Caribbean Cup was the championship tournament for national association football teams that are members of the Caribbean Football Union. The first competition, established by Shell and run by former England Cricket fast bowler Fred Rumsey, wa ...

in 1991, coming fourth, and in 2007. Guyana has never qualified for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

, but on 23 March 2019 they qualified for the first time for the

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

History

British Guiana (1905–59)

Guyana (as British Guiana) played its first international football match on 21 July 1905, a 4–1 defeat against nearby and fellow British colony

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

. Their next recorded game came almost 16 years later on 28 January 1921, an away 2–1 win against its neighbour

. The two played again in Suriname on 27 August 1923, and on that occasion the hosts won 2–1. British Guiana did not play another match until 1937, when they lost two matches against

in Suriname: 3–0 and 3–2. After seven years without a match, British Guiana entered a three-team tournament in Trinidad & Tobago against its national side and

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

. They won twice against Barbados (1–0 and 3–0) before drawing 1–1 and losing 3–0 to Trinidad and Tobago. In the final of this Trinagular tournament they again lost 3–0 to Trinidad and Tobago. In November 1947 British Guiana played in a

Standard Life Standard Life is a life assurance, pensions and long-terms savings company in the UK which is owned by Phoenix Group. History 1825–2010 The Standard Life Assurance Company was established in 1825 and was reincorporated as a mutual assurance ...

tournament in Trinidad and Tobago. They beat the hosts 2–1 in their opening game on 5 November before beating

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

2–0 the very next day. On 10 November they drew 0–0 with Jamaica before losing 2–0 to Trinidad and Tobago in the last game on 14 November. British Guiana played its first home games in 1950 against Trinidad and Tobago: these were British Guiana's first matches since the Standard Life tournament. British Guiana lost 1–0 and 4–1 before winning 1–0. The last match played under the name British Guiana was the next match on 2 March 1959 – a 2–2 draw against Trinidad and Tobago.

Guyana

After independence in 1966, Guyana did not play a match for five years. Their first fixtures under their new name were qualifiers for the 1971 CONCACAF Championship against

. The first match, away, was lost 4–1 and the home match on 21 September 1971 was lost 3–2 as Suriname advanced 7–3 on aggregate. In 1976 Guyana entered its first ever World Cup qualification campaign with the aim of reaching the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

in Argentina. Guyana and Suriname were drawn in a two-legged preliminary in the Caribbean section of CONCACAF qualification and Guyana won the first leg 2–0 at home on 4 July 1976. The second leg in

Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's ...

was lost 3–0 which allowed Suriname to advance.

2006

Guyana had a remarkable calendar year in 2006, with eleven successive wins, including five

qualifiers These results boosted Guyana's spot in the

FIFA World Rankings The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, led by Brazil . The teams of the men's member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the ...

by 87 spots in little over a year. As a consequence, the team rose to the top 12 in CONCACAF and were in the third rank of seeds in the World Cup qualifying draw.

Caribbean Nations Cup 2007

At the

2006–07 Caribbean Nations Cup The 2007 Caribbean Cup (known as the Digicel Caribbean Cup for sponsorship reasons) was the fourteenth edition of the biennial Caribbean Cup, the finals of which were contested in Trinidad and Tobago between 12 January and 23 January 2007. The fou ...

, Guyana finished top of Group A in Stage One, then top of Group H in Stage Two (which they hosted), and finished 3rd in the Bobby Sookram Group, missing out on a semi-final berth on goal difference alone. Had Guyana reached the semi-finals, they would have qualified for the

2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the ninth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), and was won by the United States over Mexico. It was contested in the United States from ...

2014 World Cup qualifying

With the return of international coach

Jamaal Shabazz Jamaal Shabazz (born 22 November 1963) is a Trinidadian football manager, who is the current head coach of the Guyana national football team. He is known for four different stints in charge of Guyana. Coup attempt Shabazz was involved in the ...

, Guyana finished top of a group containing Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Bermuda to reach the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

of qualifying for the

2014 World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

in Brazil. They qualified with one game to go with a 2–1 home win against Trinidad and Tobago on 11 November 2011. Guyana organised friendly matches against Colombia, Bolivia, Jamaica and Panama for the first team. In the third round group, they finished last, behind Mexico, Costa Rica and El Salvador, with one point from their six matches.

Lack of football 2013/14

From November 2012 to October 2014 Guyana did not play a single international fixture. This amongst other factors led to FIFA stepping in and removing the GFF executive at the end of 2014.

2015 and 2016 return of the Golden Jaguars

With FIFA stepping into Guyana once again, a FIFA Normalisation Committee was installed to regularise football in Guyana. With this came the search for a National Team Head Coach with

reinstalled initially for one game versus Barbados in Jan 2015. As Guyana had lost many first team players to retirement since 2012, the squad was a new younger group with major gaps in the goalkeeper and defensive areas. However a 2-2 draw with Barbados was enough for Shabazz and his staff, consisting of assistant coach Wayne Wiggy Dover, Operations Manager Mark Xavier, Team Manager Faizal Khan, Kit Man Trevor Burnett, GoalKeeper Coach Andrew Hazell, Physical Trainer Anson Ambrose, Medical Officer Denzil Hernandez.

Results and fixtures

The list below displays match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future scheduled matches''

2022

2023

Coaching staff

Coaching history

Players

Current squad

* The following players were called up for the 2022–23 CONCACAF Nations League matches. * Match dates: 5, 7, 11 and 14 June 2022 * Opposition: , and (twice) *Caps and goals correct as of: 14 June 2022, after the match against

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up within the past year. ^INJ Withdrew due to injury.
^PRE Preliminary squad.
^RET Retired from the national team.
^WD Withdrew for personal reasons.

Player records

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

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

CONCACAF Gold Cup

CONCACAF Nations League

Caribbean Cup

References

External links

Official website

Guyana FIFA profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Guyana National Football Team South American national association football teams Caribbean national association football teams Football in Guyana