The Lesotho national football team represents

Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked as an enclave in South Africa. It is situated in the Maloti Mountains and contains the highest mountains in Southern Africa. It has an area of over and has a population ...

in men's 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 ...

and is governed by the

Lesotho Football Association The Lesotho Football Association (LeFA) is the governing body of Football in Lesotho, association football in Lesotho, a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It was formed in 1932 and it is based in the city of Maseru. The board helps run the Le ...

. The team's nickname is "Likuena" (Crocodiles). The team 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 has ...

finals and the

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 internat ...

finals in history. The team represents both

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 ...

and

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).

History

The team played their first international match in 1970, a 2–1 victory against

Malawi Malawi (; or aláwi Tumbuka: ''Malaŵi''), officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northe ...

. They have not qualified for a

yet. Their highest position in the

FIFA World Ranking 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 ...

was 105th in August 2014. Their biggest ever win was 5–0 against

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its n ...

in April 2006. From 2004 to 2006, the German

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 ...

coached the national side. The ambitious goal was the qualification for the

2010 World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

in neighbouring

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

. However, after one and a half years, Hey was dismissed for failing. The successor was the Serb Zavisa Milosavljevic, who was also dismissed in September 2009 and was replaced by Lesotho native

Leslie Notši Leslie Notši (born 5 September 1964) is a Mosotho former footballer who played as midfielder. He is currently a head coach of Linare in the Vodacom Premier league Lesotho, but has previously coached the Lesotho national football team. Career ...

, who was previously the assistant coach of the national team. In 2014 Seephephe "Mochini" Matete trained the team, a former international.

Moses Maliehe Lehlohonolo Moses Maliehe (born 3 February 1966) is a South African former professional soccer player who was most recently manager of Lesotho. Playing career Maliehe was born in Klerksdorp, South Africa to Basotho parents from Teyateyaneng, L ...

became the coach in 2016. The biggest success of the national team was reaching the final of the

2000 COSAFA Cup The 2000 COSAFA Cup is the 4th edition of the football tournament that involves teams from COSAFA. Zimbabwe beat Lesotho Lesotho ( ), officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a country landlocked as an enclave in South Africa. It is situated i ...

. In 2005 the under-20 national team qualified for the

2005 African Youth Championship The 2005 African Youth Championship was an international football competition that took place between 15 and 29 January 2005. The tournament was hosted by Benin and also served as qualification for the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship. Qualific ...

. They finished third place of Group B, with a win and two losses. The nickname of the national team is Likuena (Sesotho for "the crocodiles").

Managers

:Caretaker manager are listed in ''italics''. * April Phumo (1979–1995) * Lefa Ramakau (2000–??) * Monaheng Monyane (2003–2004) *

(2004–2006) * Motheo Mohapi (2006–2007) *

Zaviša Milosavljević Zaviša Milosavljević ( Serbian Cyrillic: Завиша Милосављевић; born 14 July 1961) is a Serbian football manager. Milosavljević was a professor of physical education at the University of Belgrade. He is a former coach of the ...

(2007–2009) * ''

'' (2009) *

(2011–2013) * '' Adam Siddorn'' (2013) * Seephephe Matete (2014–2015) *

(2015–2019) * Mpitsa Marai (2019) *

Thabo Senong Thabo Senong is a South African football manager. In August 2019, he was appointed as manager of the Lesotho national football team. Prior to his appointment, Senong was coach of the South Africa national U-20 team, known as the Amajitas. He c ...

(2019–2021) *

(2021–2022) * Veselin Jelusic (2022–present)

Players

Current squad

The following players were selected for the friendly matches against

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

on 26 and 29 May respectively and the

2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches will be organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, the 34th edition of the international men's football champi ...

matches against

Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...

and

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

on 3 and June 2022 respectively. ''Caps and goals correct as of 10 July 2022, after the match against

Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

.''

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Lesotho squad within the last twelve months. ^INJ Withdrew due to injury
^PRE Preliminary squad / standby
^RET Retired from the national team
^SUS Serving suspension
^WD Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue.

Player records

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

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

Africa Cup of Nations

COSAFA Cup

Head-to-head record

''As of 26 May 2022 after match against ''

Kit suppliers

Uhlsport Uhlsport GmbH is a German sporting goods manufacturer. Originally established in 1948 as "Haase & Uhl OHG" and later renamed "Karl Uhl GmbH", the company became "uhlsport GmbH" in 1994. It is an international company which has its permanent headq ...

(2000) *

Umbro Umbro is an English sports equipment manufacturer founded in 1924 in Wilmslow, Cheshire and based in Manchester. They specialise in football and rugby sportswear featuring their ''Double Diamond'' logo. Umbro products are marketed in over 1 ...

(2002, 2006) *

(2007) *

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 manufacture ...

(2008–2011) * Basutoland Ink (2012–2019) *

(2019–)

Honours

COSAFA Cup The COSAFA Cup or COSAFA Senior Challenge Cup is an annual tournament for teams from Southern Africa organized by Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), inaugurated after the ban against the Republic of South Africa had been ...

: ::* Runners-up:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lesotho National Football Team African national association football teams