The Nicaragua national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Nicaragua) represents

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

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 c ...

and is controlled by the

Nicaraguan Football Federation The Nicaraguan Football Federation (FENIFUT; es, Federación Nicaragüense de Fútbol) is the official governing body of association football in Nicaragua. FENIFUT comprises 19 departmental and 153 municipal federations. It oversees all national ...

. Nicaragua achieved its first qualification to a major international competition in 2009, as they qualified for the 2009 Gold Cup as the last entrant from

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, after a 2–0 win over

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

in the fifth place match in the 2009 Nations Cup. However, 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 ha ...

. Due to

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

influence throughout the country's history, baseball has more of a following as both a pursuit and spectator event in Nicaragua than football.

History

Nicaragua traveled to

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

for their first ever international, losing 9–0 to the hosts on 1 May 1929. They did not play another match for over twelve years, until the qualifying group for the 1941 CCCF Championship in

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

. They lost all 4 games: 7–2 to the hosts

on 10 May, 8–0 to El Salvador on 13 May, 9–1 to the

Netherlands Antilles nl, In vrijheid verenigd"Unified by freedom" , national_anthem = , common_languages = Dutch English Papiamento , demonym = Netherlands Antillean , capital = Willemstad , year_start = 1954 , year_end = 2010 , date_start = 15 December , ...

on 15 May and 5–2 to

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

on 18 May. Therefore, Nicaragua finished bottom of the group and did not make the final group.

Recent times

After qualifying for the 2019 Gold Cup on the back of finishing ninth in Nations League qualifying, they would go on to finish bottom of the group with losses to Costa Rica,

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

and

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

Schedule and results

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

2022

2023

Coaching staff

Coaching history

* José "Chingolo" Rodríguez (Unknown) * Omar Zambrana (Unknown) * Octavio Edmundo Salas Urbina (1941–1943) * Eduardo Kosovic (1943) * José Antonio ''Pipa'' Cordero (1947) *

Santiago Bonilla Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

(1952–1953) * Ferenc Mészáros (1961) * Carlos Ruiz (1961–1962) * Santiago Berrini (1965–1967) * Livio Bendaña Espinoza (1967–1969) *

Omar Muraco Omar Ernesto Muraco (1930 – 28 November 2010

(1969–1970) *

Salvador Dubois Leiva Salvador Dubois Leiva (16 August 1935 – 11 July 2015) was a Nicaraguan footballer, who was considered one of the best goalkeepers that played for the Nicaragua national football team and Honduran powerhouse F.C. Motagua. Club career He start ...

(1977) *

Orlando Casares Orlando Casares was an Argentinean retired football coach who is last known to have managed Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa. Orlando also managed the Nicaragua National team in 1980 - 1981. He is the father of Matias Casares, the president of the ...

(1980–1981) * Ján Fülöp (1984–1986) *

(1991–1992) * Mauricio Cruz Jiron (1993–2001) * Florencio Levia (2001–2002) *

Maurizio Battistini Maurizio Battistini (born 5 April 1957) is a Sammarinese alpine skier. He competed in two events at the 1976 Winter Olympics The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (german: XII. Olympische Winterspiele, f ...

(2003–2004) *

Marcelo Javier Zuleta Marcelo Javier Zuleta (born 25 January 1964) is a former Argentine football player and manager. Managerial career He was lastly the coach of Club Deportivo El Nacional in the Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national ...

(2005) *

Carlos De Toro Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewher ...

(2007–2008) * Mauricio Cruz Jiron (2008) * Ramón Otoniel Olivas (2008–2009) * Enrique Llena (2010–2014) * Javier Londono (2014) *

Henry Duarte Henry Duarte Molina (born 5 October 1958) is a Costa Rican football coach. Managerial career Duarte has coaches several Costa Rican Primera División clubs, with him taking charge of Herediano, one of the country's ''Big Four'', in 1997 as one ...

(2014–2020) *

Juan Vita Juan Vita (born 11 May 1987) is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. Playing career Vita began his career at Club Lácar, joining River Plate's youth ranks at the age of 13. During Vita's senior career, he ...

(2020–2022) *

Marco Antonio Figueroa Marco Antonio Figueroa Montero (; born 21 February 1962) is a Chilean former footballer, currently manager for Nicaragua. He is commonly known as "El Fantasma" ( Spanish word: "The phantom"). Figueroa played as a striker and spent the major ...

(2022–)

Players

Current squad

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

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up for the team in the last twelve months. ^INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury.
^PRE Preliminary squad.
^RET Player retired from the national team.
^SUS Player is serving suspension.
^WD Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue.

Records

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

Most appearances

Top goalscorers

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

The Nicaragua national football team has never qualified for the World Cup. Their latest attempt was for the

2022 World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022; it is the first Wo ...

, when the side failed to advance from the

first round First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

CONCACAF Gold Cup

CONCACAF Nations League

Copa Centroamericana

CCCF Championship

Pan American Games

Central American and Caribbean Games

Central American Games

Head-to-head record

''As of 19 November 2022 after the match against ''.

References

External links

Official website

Nicaragua FIFA profile

at RSSSF.com {{National sports teams of Nicaragua Central American national association football teams