The Rwanda national football team represents

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

in international

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

and is controlled by the

Rwandese Association Football Federation The Rwanda Football Federation ( French: ''Fédération Rwandaise de Football Association'', FERWAFA; "Rwandan Association Football Federation"), is the official governing body of association football in Rwanda. It was founded in 1975 and affiliate ...

, the

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ge ...

football in Rwanda The sport of football in the country of Rwanda is run by the Rwandese Association Football Federation. The association administers the national football team, as well as the Rwandan Premier League. Football is the most popular sport in Rwanda. ...

, and competes as a member of the

Confederation of African Football The Confederation of African Football, or CAF for short (french: link=yes, Confédération Africaine de Football, ar, link=yes, الاتحاد الأفريقي لكرة القدم, al-Ittiḥād al-Afrīqī li-Kurat al-Qadam), is the administ ...

(CAF), as well as the

Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations ( sw, Baraza la Mashirikisho ya Mpira wa Miguu Afrika Mashariki na Kati, french: Conseil des Associations de Football d'Afrique de l'Est et Centrale, ar, مؤتمر جمعيات شر� ...

(CECAFA), a CAF sub-confederation that governs football in East and Central Africa. The team bears the nickname ''Amavubi'' (

Kinyarwanda Kinyarwanda, Rwandan or Rwanda, officially known as Ikinyarwanda, is a Bantu language and a dialect of the Rwanda-Rundi language that is spoken in Rwanda and adjacent parts of Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda (where there ...

for ''The Wasps''), and primarily plays its home games at the Stade Amahoro in

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...

, the nation's capital. They have never qualified for a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

finals, and reached their only

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

History

Rwanda qualified for its first

in the 2004 edition. At the tournament, they lost their opening match 2–1 to

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

before winning their first ever point in the competition after a 1–1 draw against

Guinea Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...

. Rwanda went on to beat

DR Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

in their final group match by a 1–0 scoreline, but it wasn't enough, as elsewhere in the group, Guinea and Tunisia drew, meaning both teams progressed to the quarter-finals, and

were eliminated.

Team image

Kit

In 2001, after adopting the new

flag of Rwanda The flag of Rwanda ( rw, ibendera ry'Urwanda, french: Drapeau du Rwanda) was adopted on 25 October 2001. Details The flag has three colours: blue, yellow, and green, The light blue band represents happiness and peace, the yellow band symbolize ...

, The Federation ''(FERWAFA)'' changed the color of the team kit. The new team kit consists of a yellow jersey, blue shorts and green socks for home matches, while their away kit is either all white or all blue.

Adidas Adidas AG (; stylized as adidas since 1949) is a German multinational corporation, founded and headquartered in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, that designs and manufactures shoes, clothing and accessories. It is the largest sportswear manufactur ...

has generally been the manufacturer for the Rwandan team since 2001. However, between 2004 and 2009, Rwanda used L-sport as their outfitter, and in 2015 the side started wearing kit provided by AMS, an emerging Australian supplier.

Names

Under the official FIFA Trigramme the team's name is abbreviated as RWA; this acronym is used by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

, the CAF and the

CECAFA The Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations ( sw, Baraza la Mashirikisho ya Mpira wa Miguu Afrika Mashariki na Kati, french: Conseil des Associations de Football d'Afrique de l'Est et Centrale, ar, مؤتمر جمعيات شر� ...

to identify the team in official competitions. However the team was more commonly known as the RR, the acronym for the country's official name, ''Repubulika y'u Rwanda'' or ''République du Rwanda'', which the local press used when they referred to the team as the RR XI. The national team is often referred to as ''Amavubi'' (The

Wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder. Th ...

s).

Coaching history

:Caretaker managers are listed in ''italics''. *

Otto Pfister Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fro ...

(1972–76) *

Metin Türel Metin Türel (13 September 1937 – 17 November 2018) was a Turkish football coach. Türel coached many teams in Turkey, he also coached the Turkey national football team from 1977 to 1978. He started his professional career with Galatasaray SK an ...

(1991) * Longin Rudasingwa (1998-1999) *

Rudi Gutendorf Rudolf Gutendorf (30 August 1926 – 13 September 2019) was a German football manager, renowned for managing the highest number of national teams – a total of 18 teams plus Iran's Olympic team in 1988 and the China Olympic team in 1992 ...

(1999–00) * '' Longin Rudasingwa'' (2000–01) *

Ratomir Dujković Ratomir Dujković (Serbian Cyrillic: Ратомир Дујковић, born 24 February 1946) is a Serbian football manager and a former player. Playing career Born and raised in Borovo Naselje to an ethnic Serb family, Dujković attended Ivan ...

(2001–04) *

Roger Palmgren Roger Lennart Palmgren is a Swedish football manager. He has that has been active as club manager in nine different countries: Italy, Sweden, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, South Africa, Namibia and China. He h ...

(2004–05) * Michael Nees (2006–07) *

Josip Kuže Josip Kuže (13 November 1952 – 16 June 2013) was a Croatian football manager and footballer. He was a player and later a manager of Dinamo Zagreb where he played for 10 years, making a total of 384 appearances and scoring 14 goals. Playing c ...

(2007–08) * '' Raoul Shungu'' (2008) *

Branko Tucak Branko Tucak (born 19 June 1952) is a Croatian former professional football player who last coached the Rwandan national team. Career Club career Tucak played for NK Zagreb, Dinamo Zagreb, Metz, AS Nancy, Angers, Kortrijk and Thionville ...

(2008–09) * ''

Eric Nshimiyimana Eric Nshimiyimana (born 8 May 1972) is a Rwandan football coach and former player. He currently coaches Rwanda National Football League side A.S. Kigali. Career Playing career Born in Bujumbura in Burundi, Nshimiyimana played as a midfielde ...

'' (2009–10) *

Sellas Tetteh Sellas Tetteh Teivi (born 12 December 1956) is a Ghanaian professional football coach and former player. Early and personal life Sellas Tetteh Teivi was born on 12 December 1956 in Adabraka. His father was Mensah Teivi, a mechanic, and his mothe ...

(2010–11) *

Milutin Sredojević Milutin Sredojević ( sr-Cyrl, Милутин Средојевић; born 1 September 1969), simply known as Micho, is a Serbian Association football, football manager who currently serves as the head coach of the Uganda national football team. He ...

(2011–13) *

(2013–14) *

Stephen Constantine Stephen Constantine (born 16 October 1962) is an English professional football coach and former player who is head coach of Indian Super League club East Bengal. Early and personal life Constantine was born on 16 October 1962 in London. He is ...

(2014–2015) * ''

Lee Johnson Lee Johnson may refer to: Sportspeople * Lee Johnson (wide receiver) (born 1944), American football wide receiver *Lee Johnson (punter) (born 1961), American football punter *Lee Johnson (basketball) (born 1957), American basketball player * Lee Jo ...

'' (2015) * Johnny McKinstry (2015–16) * '' Gilbert Kanyankore'' (2016) * ''

Jimmy Mulisa Jimmy Mulisa (born 24 April 1984) is a former footballer from Rwanda who played as a striker. He was also head coach at FC Sunrise, APR FC and Rwanda's national team. Playing career Mulisa began his senior club career in India, with ITI Benga ...

'' (2016) *

Antoine Hey Antoine Hey (born 19 September 1970) is a German football coach and former professional player. He has been manager of Myanmar since October 2019. He spent most of his playing career in the top two divisions of German football, and went on to ...

(2017–2018) * François Karekezi * Vincent Mashami (2018–2022) * Carlos Alós (2022–present)

Players

Current squad

* The following players were called up for the friendly matches. * Match dates: 17 and 19 November 2022 * Opposition: * Caps and goals correct as of: 7 June 2022, after the match against .

Recent call-ups

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

Player records

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

Most capped players

Top goalscorers

Competition records

FIFA World Cup record

Africa Cup of Nations record

African Nations Championship record

CECAFA Cup record

Honours

CECAFA Cup The CECAFA Cup, is the oldest football tournament in Africa. It is organized by the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (CECAFA). A FIFA competition, it includes participants of football playing national teams from the Eas ...

: **Winners (1):

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

**Runners-up (6):

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

Official Website
at the FIFA website
Rwanda
at CAF Online
Official FacebookOfficial TwitterRwanda national football team picture
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rwanda National Football Team African national association football teams