The

Slovenia national football team The Slovenia national football team ( sl, Slovenska nogometna reprezentanca) represents Slovenia in men's international football and is controlled by the Football Association of Slovenia, the governing body for football in Slovenia. The squad ...

( sl, Slovenska nogometna reprezentanca) represents the nation of

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

in international

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

. The team is controlled by the

Football Association of Slovenia The Football Association of Slovenia ( sl, Nogometna zveza Slovenije or NZS) is the governing body of football in Slovenia. It organizes the first division (1. SNL), second division (2. SNL), third division (East and West), Slovenian Cup, Sl ...

(NZS), the nation's governing body for football, and is a member of both the European football federation,

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

, and the world football association, FIFA. Prior to Slovenian independence from the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yu ...

in June 1991, the unofficial Slovenian national team played a total of five friendly matches. Shortly after independence, Slovenia was officially recognized by FIFA and played its first match on 3 June 1992, a friendly versus

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

Tallinn Tallinn () is the most populous and capital city of Estonia. Situated on a bay in north Estonia, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland of the Baltic Sea, Tallinn has a population of 437,811 (as of 2022) and administratively lies in the Harju '' ...

. In the game, ending in a 1–1 draw, Igor Benedejčič became the first goalscorer for Slovenia after equalizing in the second half. Their first competitive match was a UEFA Euro 1996 qualifier against

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

in September 1994. The team has qualified for the

UEFA European Championship The UEFA European Football Championship, less formally the European Championship and informally the Euro, is the primary association football tournament organised by the Union of European Football Associations ( UEFA). The competition is conte ...

once (in 2000) and 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 ...

twice (in 2002 and 2010), and is one of the smallest countries by population to ever qualify for the World Cup. Slovenia was eliminated on all three occasions in the group stage of these competitions. As of 20 November 2022, Slovenia has played a total of 276 official matches, winning 98, drawing 71 and losing 107. Since 1992, 220 players have represented the national team in official matches. The most capped player is Boštjan Cesar, who has made 101 appearances between 2003 and 2018. The most capped goalkeeper is

Samir Handanović Samir Handanović (born 14 July 1984) is a Slovenian professional footballer who serves as captain and plays as a goalkeeper for club Inter Milan. Before moving to Italy, Handanović played in his home country of Slovenia. In 2004, he was acqui ...

with 81 appearances between 2004 and 2015. Zlatko Zahovič is the all-time top goalscorer with 35 goals in his international career, which spanned 13 years between 1992 and 2004. The player with the most appearances as the

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

is Boštjan Cesar, who captained Slovenia in 39 matches. Benjamin Šeško is the youngest player to appear for the national team; he was 18 years and 1 day old at the time of his debut in June 2021.

Key

*The list is initially ordered by alphabetical order of surname. *Only players with at least ten appearances in official matches are listed. *Statistics are correct as of the match played on 20 November 2022.

Players

Notes

References

;General * ;Specific {{featured list Association football player non-biographical articles