Afghan national soccer team

Afghanistan
افغانستان

Nickname (s)	شیران خراسان Lions of Khorasan
Association	Afghanistan Football Federation
confederacy	AFC
Technical sponsor	bumblebee
Head coach	Anoush Dastgir (since 2018)
Assistant coach	Shabir Isoufi (since 2018)
captain	Farshad Noor
Record scorer	Belal Arezou and Faysal Shayesteh (9 each)
Record player	Zohib Islam Amiri (56+)
Home stadium	AFF stadium
FIFA code	AFG
FIFA rank	149. (1052 points) (as of July 16, 2020)
First jersey Second jersey Third jersey
Balance sheet
126 games 31 wins 28 draws 67 losses
statistics
First international match Afghanistan 0-0 Iran ( Kabul , Afghanistan ; August 25, 1941 )
Biggest victory Bhutan 1: 8 Afghanistan ( New Delhi , India ; December 7, 2011 )
Biggest defeat Turkmenistan 11-0 Afghanistan ( Ashgabat , Turkmenistan ; November 19, 2003 )
(As of November 19, 2019)

The men Afghan national football team ( Dari : تیم ملی فوتبال افغانستان tim-e Milli-e futbal-e Afghanestan , Pashto : د افغانستان د فوټبال ملي لوبډله Since Afghanestan since futbal Milli Lobḍala ) is the national team of Afghanistan Football Federation represents (AFF) and Afghanistan at the international level. She has been coached by former national player Anoush Dastgir since 2018 .

The national team played their first international match against Iran in 1941 . Due to the decades of war and other unrest of a political nature in the country, it was almost impossible for a long time to establish a national team permanently. In the early years of the national team, for example, there were no international matches at all, between 1959 and 1976 and 1984 and 2002 for a total of 35 years. Only for a few years have the Afghan national team played their international matches regularly and several times a year.

Accordingly, Afghanistan is relatively unsuccessful internationally; the qualification for the Asian or World Cup has not yet succeeded. The national team has only celebrated greater success in the recent past; the biggest is winning the South Asian Championship in 2013. In addition, in 2011 and 2015 they reached the final of the competition twice and in 2014 the semi-finals of the AFC Challenge Cup . These developments were awarded the FIFA Fair Play Prize in 2013 .

history

→ see also: Football in Afghanistan

Beginnings (1941–1954)

The Afghanistan Football Federation was founded as early as 1922 , but for a long time no organized clubs or even a national team existed. The first club, Mahmoudiyeh FC , was founded in 1934, Ariana Kabul FC in 1941.

19 years after the founding of the AFF, an international football match was played for the first time in the history of Afghan football in August 1941. As part of the Afghanistan Independence Tournament , an annual celebration of the country's independence, two international matches were played in August 1941. However, the exact dates of these games are unclear. Most sources regard the game against Iran as Afghanistan's first international match, but the national team is said to have played an international match against British India that same month ; an exact date is not known. Whether the game actually took place is unclear, as it was only mentioned in one source in a review. In addition, a selection of players from the city of Kandahar played a game against an Iranian selection on August 16 (0: 5). The game against Iran, which took place on August 24 or 25, 1941, depending on the source, officially ended 0-0; however, some Iranian sources report that Afghanistan won 1-0 through a controversial last-minute penalty. For diplomatic reasons it was probably decided that the game would be a draw. The first national team, which consisted exclusively of players from Ariana Kabul, played with the following players: Sayed Karim Gholam-Ali , Mohammad Hakim , Hassan Karimi , Khan Mohammad , Molavi Mohammad Seddiq , Aziz Seraj , Karim Seraj , Ahmad Shah , Abdul Ghafoor Tajer .

Club football stabilized in Afghanistan in the following years, so that in 1946 an Afghan football league, the Afghanistan Premier League , was founded. In 1948 the association joined the world football association FIFA . In the same year, an Afghan national team took part in the Olympic Games for the first time. In the preliminary round of the Olympic football tournament, she played against Luxembourg on July 26, 1948 ; in Brighton they lost 0: 6 in front of 5000 spectators. This game was the first official international game for Afghanistan. The list was as follows: Abdul Ghafoor Assar - Mohamed Ibrahim Gharzai , Abdul Ghafoor Yusufzai - Abdul Shakur Azimi , Yar Mohamed Barakzai , Abdul Ahat Kharot - Mohamad Anwar Kharot , Anwar Afzal , Abdul Ghani Assar , Abdul Hamid Tajik , Mohammed Sarwar Yusufzai .

Afghanistan played their first international tournament at the first Asian Games in 1951. After defeats in the semifinals against India (0: 3) and in the game for third place against Japan (0: 2) they finished fourth out of six participants. The second participation in 1954 was not very successful either; after two defeats against South Korea (2: 8) and Hong Kong (2: 4), the tournament ended in the group stage.

An Afghan national team only played an international match five years later: in the first qualifying round for the 1960 Olympic Games , they lost 5-2 to India on September 27, 1959. The planned second leg did not take place as Afghanistan withdrew. After this game, the national team disappeared from the game. The game against India was Afghanistan’s last international match for 16 years, and regular club football has not been played since 1955.

Temporary resumption of gaming operations (1976–1984)

International matches were not held again until 1975, when Afghanistan took part in qualifying for the 1976 Asian Cup. The team also took part in qualifying for the 1980 Asian Cup and the 1984 tournament, but remained without a win and was never able to qualify for the finals.

New beginning (2002-2008)

Under the effects of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan from 1980 and the subsequent rule of the Taliban , no internationals took place for a long period from 1985 onwards. It was not until the Asian Games in Busan, Korea in 2002, that an Afghan team played an international competitive game again.

In January 2003 Afghanistan took part in the 2003 South Asian Cup , which was the first time in a South Asian Cup. The team won their first victory in its history in March 2003 against Kyrgyzstan in a qualifying match for the Asian Cup with a score of 2-1. The senior team also took part in the World Cup qualification for the 2006 World Cup, but failed in the first round against Turkmenistan (0:11 and 0: 2). Also in the 2010 World Cup qualification they failed in the first round, this time to Syria (0: 3, 1: 2).

The Kargar Era: Winning the South Asian Cup and FIFA Fair Play Award (2008-2015)

Zohib Islam Amiri (left) in the game against India at the 2011 South Asian Cup

A number of Afghan national players played in German amateur football, including Djelaludin Sharityar , Obaidulla Karimi , Yusuf Barak , Said Daftari , Harez Habib , Ata Yamrali , Milad Salem , Mansur Faqiryar , Saboor Khalili and Mustafa Hadid .

The greatest success in Afghan national team history up to 2013 was reaching the finals of the 2011 South Asian Cup, where they celebrated the highest victory in history in the group game against Bhutan with an 8-1 win. At the beginning of 2013, the sports director of the Afghan national football team announced that they would like to organize the establishment of underground teams. For this purpose, scouting teams will travel through Europe for the first time in history, starting in Hamburg.

On August 20, 2013, an international match between the national teams of Afghanistan and Pakistan took place in the AFF stadium . It was the Afghans' first home game in ten years. They won it 3-0. On September 11, 2013, Afghanistan won the South Asian Cup for the first time after beating India 2-0 in the final, the greatest achievement in the history of the national team. The Afghan Football Association was honored with the FIFA Fair Play Prize in 2013 because Afghan football has made excellent progress despite security problems and financial bottlenecks.

Since the head coach Mohammad Yousef Kargar was temporarily banned by the AFC in 2014, Erich Rutemöller took over the team at the AFC Challenge Cup 2014. In autumn 2014 Kargar returned to the national team as a coach and practiced this position until an attack on him (Kargar) on 10. January 2015.

Present (since 2015)

The Afghan national team before the World Cup qualifier against Japan (2015)

In June 2014, the Central Asian Football Association (CAFA) was founded in São Paulo . Afghanistan will now take part in the Central Asian Cup in the future.

From February 9, 2015, the 43-year-old German-Bosnian trainer Slaven Skeledžić was Kargar's successor as head coach of Afghanistan. Skeledžić led the national team against Laos to their first ever World Cup qualifying win. At the end of October he was relieved of his duties after Afghanistan failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup . With effect from November 1, 2015, the Croatian Petar Šegrt was signed as the new national coach. The team played under Šegrt at the 2015 South Asian Cup . Afghanistan won all group matches as well as the semi-finals against Sri Lanka . Šegrt was the first coach in Afghanistan to win his first five games. However, they lost the final against India 1: 2 a.s. Thanks to a 2: 1 win against Singapore they reached the third qualifying round for the 2019 Asian Cup for the first time .

After internal disputes, Petar Šegrt resigned early in November 2016, despite the contract that originally ran until 2020. For the game against Tajikistan on November 13, 2016 (0: 1), Anoush Dastgir took over the coaching position on an interim basis and at 26 years and 352 days is the youngest senior national team coach of all time. In February 2017 Otto Pfister was appointed Šegrt's successor. Under him, the national team missed the first qualification for the 2019 Asian Cup . After Pfister's contract expired after the last qualifying game against Cambodia (2-1) on March 27, 2018, the former interim coach Anoush Dastgir was appointed as the new national coach.

Trainer

No.	Surname	from 1	until 1	Sp	S.	U	N	Gates	Quota 2	Pt.	successes
	unknown	23 Aug 1941	Aug 27, 1959								4th place Asian Games 1951
Balance sheet 1941–1959 3				010	00	01	09	007: 039	0.1
1.	Salenko	0Apr 2, 1975
2.	Sergey Salnikov
3.	Nikolai Efimov
4th	Islam Gul
5.	Sayed Ahmad Zia Muzafari
6th	Khwaja Aziz
7th	Gennady Sarychev		Sep 20 1984
Balance 1975–1984 4				017th	01	04th	12	010: 051	0.41
8th.	Mir Ali Asghar Akbarzada	Jan. 10, 2003	18 Mar 2003	005	01	00	04th	002: 011	0.60	3
9.	Mohammad Yousef Kargar	Nov 19, 2003	Nov 23, 2003	002	00	00	02	000: 013	0	0
10.	Klaus strength	0Nov 9, 2005	0June 8, 2008	013	02	05	06th	013: 030	0.85	11
11.	Mohammad Yousef Kargar 5	July 30, 2008	Sep 11 2013	030th	13	05	12	040: 043	1.47	44	Vice South Asian Champion 2011 , South Asian Champion 2013
	Erich Rutemöller (interim) 5	Apr 13, 2014	May 29, 2014	009	02	04th	03	007: 008	1.11	10	4th place AFC Challenge Cup 2014
	Hosein Saleh (interim) 5	0Feb 6, 2015	0Feb 6, 2015	001	00	00	01	001: 002	0	0
12.	Slaven Skeledžić	May 29, 2015	Oct 13, 2015	008th	02	01	05	006: 021	0.88	7th
13.	Petar Šegrt	Nov 12, 2015	Oct 11, 2016	0010	06th	01	03	023: 012	1.9	18th	Vice South Asian Champion 2015
	Anoush Dastgir (interim) 7	Nov 13, 2016	Nov 13, 2016	001	00	00	01	000: 001	0	0
14th	Otto Pfister	23 Mar 2017	27 Mar 2018	009	03	03	03	011: 014	1.33	12
15th	Anoush Dastgir	19th Aug 2018		006th	01	04th	06th	006: 023	0.64	7th
Balance sheet since 2003				099	30th	23	46	109: 178	1.14
Total 6 (as of Nov. 19, 2019)				126	31	28	67	126: 268	0.96

Remarks:

¹ The dates of the first and last international match are given for the terms of office.

²Average Score Per Game; 3 points per win, 1 point per draw.

³ In the period between the first international match against British India in August 1941 and the international match against India on August 27, 1959, nine games took place, which were played under an unknown direction.

^4thBetween 1975 and 1984 there were 17 official international matches. In addition, unofficial tournaments such as the Quiad-e-Azam International Cup 1976 were contested. Since, for example, Ali Askar Lali , who was active in the national team from 1975 to 1979, is said to have played 25 games, it can be assumed that a total of well over 25 international matches were completed.

⁵Erich Rutemöller took over the post from Mohammad Yousef Kargar on an interim basis during the AFC Challenge Cup 2014 , as Kargar was banned from the tournament for insulting the referee. After a knife attack on Kargar on January 10, 2015, his position for the game against Pakistan (1: 2) was taken over by the then Technical Director of the AFF Hosein Saleh .

^6thGames that are decided on penalties are counted as a draw. The goals scored on penalties are not counted.

^7thAfter Šegrt resigned shortly before the game against Tajikistan , the nominated player Anoush Dastgir took over the interim coaching post.

Records

Record international player

Zohib Islam Amiri is the record international player in Afghanistan

→ see also: List of Afghan national soccer players

Since 1941 graduated from Afghanistan 128 officially recognized by the WFER and 123 officially recognized by the FIFA -recognized international matches . Especially in the early years of the association and during the temporary resumption of game operations in the mid-1970s, numerous unofficial international matches took place. E.g. the national team took part in the Quaid-e-Azam International Cup in 1976, but the internationals are not recognized. Since most games were not adequately documented in terms of line-up until the 2000s, it is practically impossible to make a statement about the record national player of Afghanistan. Most of the international matches have only been documented since 2003 and the line-ups as well as substitutions and substitutions have also been recorded. The following list provides an overview of Afghanistan's record international players since 2003 . However, no line-ups are known for seven games between 2005 and 2008, so the list cannot be considered complete:

rank	Surname	International matches	Active years
1	Zohib Islam Amiri	56 1	since 2005
2	Faysal Shayesteh	44	since 2014
3	Djelaludin Sharityar	38 2	2007-2015
	Abassin Alikhil	38	since 2011
5	Mustafa Hadid	37 2	since 2008
6th	Ahmad Hatifie	34	2011-2016
7th	Mohammad Yusef Mashriqi	30th	2011-2014
	Ovays Azizi	30th	since 2015
9	Hassan Amin	28	since 2014
10	Israfeel Kohistani	27 1	2005-2013
	Hashmatullah Barekzai	27 2	2007-2014

Remarks:

¹ No line-ups are available for 7 games that occur during this player's active time.

² For 3 games that fall during the active time of this player, no line-ups are available.

Record goal scorers

Faysal Shayesteh has so far scored nine goals in the dress of the national team

The national team's goal scorers have only been adequately documented since 2003, but in contrast to the lineups, this was done without any gaps. Little is known about the scorers of the 13 goals in the games before 1984; the only documented goals were the two goals in the 2: 5 defeat in the qualifying game for the 1960 Olympics against India on August 28, 1959; the two goalscorers were Ayubi and Mosa. The following list provides an overview of Afghanistan's record scorers since 2003 :

rank	Surname	Gates	International matches	Active years
1	Belal Arezou	9	26th	2011-2017
	Faysal Shayesteh	9	44	since 2014
3	Khaibar Amani	7th	21st	since 2015
4th	Sandjar Ahmadi	6th	22nd	2011-2015
	Zohib Islam Amiri	6th	56 1	since 2005
6th	Hashmatullah Barekzai	5	27 2	2007-2014
7th	Harez Habib	4th	16	2007-2013
	Ahmad Hatifie	4th	34	2011-2016

Remarks:

¹ No line-ups are available for 7 games that occur during this player's active time.

² For 3 games that fall during the active time of this player, no line-ups are available.

Most games as captain

The captain of the Afghan national team was documented for the first time at the 2006 AFC Challenge Cup . The following list provides an overview of the record captains of Afghanistan since 2006 . No captain is known from the game against Tajikistan on November 17, 2010 (0: 1):

rank	Surname	Games 1	First game 1	Last game 1	Tournaments (games) 1	Title 1
1	Zohib Islam Amiri	17th	December 3, 2011	May 29, 2014	Challenge-Cup 2014 (4) 3 , SAFF-Cup 2011 (2) 2 , 2013 (5)	South Asian Champion 2013
2	Bashir Ahmad Saadat	16	April 3, 2006	October 20, 2008	Challenge Cup 2006 (2), 2008 (3), SAFF Cup 2008 (3)
	Faysal Shayesteh	16	November 12, 2015	19th August 2018	SAFF-Cup 2015 (5)
4th	Djelaludin Sharityar	13	5th December 2011	October 13, 2015	SAFF-Cup 2011 (1) 2
5	Farshad Noor	8th	December 28, 2018
6th	Israfeel Kohistani	7th	March 23, 2011	July 3, 2011
7th	Ali Ahmad Yarzada	2	December 7, 2009	December 9, 2009	SAFF-Cup 2009 (2)
	Hassan Amin	2	March 28, 2017	20th March 2019
	Sharif Mukhammad	2	5th September 2017	December 25, 2018
10	Belal Arezou	1	December 7, 2011	December 7, 2011	SAFF-Cup 2011 (1) 2
	Mohammad Yusef Mashriqi	1	December 9, 2011	December 9, 2011	SAFF-Cup 2011 (1) 2
	Hamidullah Yousufzai	1	December 11, 2011	December 11, 2011	SAFF-Cup 2011 (1) 2
	Mansur Faqiryar	1	May 29, 2014	May 29, 2014	Challenge Cup 2014 3
	Ovays Azizi	1	5th September 2016	5th September 2016
	Mustafa Hadid	1	August 30, 2017	August 30, 2017
	Abassin Alikhil	1	March 27, 2018	March 27, 2018

Remarks:

¹ All games, tournaments and titles in which the player was captain are meant.

²No permanent captain was appointed at the 2011 South Asian Cup: while Zohib Islam Amiri was still in the captain's armband in the first game against India, Djelaludin Sharityar (against Sri Lanka), Belal Arezou (Bhutan), Mohammad Yusef Mashriqi (Nepal ) were in the following games in the semifinals) and Hamidullah Yousufzai (India in the finals), who led the Afghan team onto the field. In the final, Yousufzai received the red card and Amiri took over the captaincy.

³ Faqiryar represented the spared Amiri in the game for 3rd place against the Maldives (7: 8 n. E.).

Record goalkeeper

In contrast to the missing line-ups of the seven games mentioned above, the goalkeepers' missions can be documented with video and image material. Only from the game against Tajikistan on November 9, 2005 (0: 4) is no list known and neither image nor video material is available. The following list provides an overview of the national team's record goalkeepers since 2003 :

rank	Surname	Games	without conceding a goal (abs.)	without conceding a goal (rel.)	Tournaments 1	Title 1
1	Ovays Azizi	30th	6th	20%	SAFF Cup 2015
2	Mansur Faqiryar	23	13	57%	Challenge Cup 2014; SAFF Cup 2013	South Asian Champion 2013
3	Shamsuddin Amiri	18th	2	11%	Challenge Cup 2006, 2008; SAFF Cup 2005, 2008
4th	Hamidullah Yousufzai	15th	4th	27%	Challenge Cup 2014 *; SAFF-Cup 2005 *, 2009, 2011, 2013	South Asian Champion 2013
5	Abdul Salem Jamshid	5	0	0%	SAFF Cup 2003
6th	Fardeen Kohistani	4th	2	50%	SAFF-Cup 2015 *
7th	Hamidullah Wakili	3	1	33%
8th	Faisal Hamidi	2	0	0%
9	Mohammad Nader Aimi	1	0	0%	SAFF Cup 2003 *
	Bashir Darman	1	0	0%	SAFF Cup 2011
	Emal Gariwal	1	0	0%	Challenge Cup 2006 *, 2008 *; SAFF Cup 2008 *

The longest run without a clean sheet comes from Mansur Faqiryar . During the entire 2013 South Asian Cup , he received only one goal and remained without a goal for 324 minutes. Only in the next but one test match against Tajikistan (0: 1) did Faqiryar's streak break when Nuriddin Davronov scored the final score in the second minute. So Faqiryar stayed a total of 416 minutes without conceding and played in four consecutive games to zero. The old record was held by Hamidullah Yousufzai , who conceded a total of 251 minutes during the 2011 South Asian Cup . In addition, Faqiryar managed to concede just one goal in 619 minutes between September 4, 2013 and May 14, 2014. Ovays Azizi did this in 522 minutes.

Azizi did not concede a goal in 302 consecutive minutes between November 12 and December 28, 2015, while playing against Cambodia, Bangladesh and Bhutan to zero. Shamsuddin Amiri, for his part, stayed 218 minutes without conceding between October 26, 2007 and June 4, 2008. He was the first goalkeeper since the resumption of play in 2003 to go clean (in the 0-0 draw against Bangladesh) and the first to break the 200-minute mark.

Mansur Faqiryar played the most clean sheets in absolute terms; in 13 of his 23 bets he played to zero, which corresponds to a remarkable rate of 57%. He was also the only Afghan to cross the 200-minute mark four times without conceding a goal. Hamidullah Yousufzai and Ovays Azizi both stayed twice for more than 200 minutes without conceding a goal.

Faqiryar got the fewest goals; in 23 games he had to reach behind him only 16 times, which corresponds to a rate of 0.7 goals conceded per game. In his first 16 international matches, there were only six goals against. Only Yousufzai comes closest to Faqiryar of all goalkeepers with at least 15 internationals. In 15 games he conceded 19 goals (1.27). Ovays Azizi received 29 goals (1.61) in 18 games, with 16 goals conceded in just three games; without this he comes as the second goalkeeper on an average of less than one goal per game (0.87).

Remarks:

¹ Goalkeepers marked with * were not used in the tournament.

Environment of the national team

Venues

The national stadium of Afghanistan is the Ghazi Stadium in Kabul . However, the stadium does not comply with FIFA regulations , so that no game has been played here since the World Cup qualifier against Turkmenistan in 2003. Instead , the AFF stadium built with the help of the FIFA Goal project is used as a new home ground. However, due to the war in Afghanistan , home games for the Afghan national team are almost impossible, as none of the teams can be offered enough security. This is why official international matches are usually banned by FIFA. Exceptions were the international matches between Afghanistan and Pakistan on August 20, 2013 and against Palestine on August 19, 2018.

To prepare for games, people have been traveling to training camps in Dubai or Qatar since the early 2010s . The "home games" are also played abroad. For the qualifying games for the 2018 World Cup , where Afghanistan reached the 2nd round for the first time and was therefore also entitled to play home games for the first time, they played on neutral courts in Iran ( Tehran , Mashhad ). For the Asian Cup qualifiers in 2019, the national team avoided Dushanbe in Tajikistan .

Playing clothes

Home jerseys

The traditional color of the home shirts is red. The color has not changed since 2003, only the design has changed with the tournaments.

SAFF Cup 2003	World Cup 2006 qualification	2005-2006	2007	2008	2009	2010-2011	2013	2014	2015-2016
2016–

Away shirt

For a long time, the Afghan national team played completely in white. The black pants were only introduced in 2013.

SAFF Cup 2003	World Cup 2006 qualification	2005-2006	2007	2008	2009	2010-2011	2013	2014	2015-2016
2016–

Suppliers and sponsors

Since the Asian Games in 2002 , the Japanese sporting goods manufacturer Asics was the team's official supplier. In 2005 the supplier changed and signed with the German manufacturer Adidas ; for the first time the jerseys were made for the South Asian Cup in 2005 . After leaving the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008 , a two-year contract was signed the following year with the manufacturer Hummel , which from then on equipped the national team. In 2011, the expiring contract was extended by four years to June 30, 2015. On March 6, 2015, the contract with the Danish manufacturer was renewed for another four years.

The main sponsor of the national team has been Alokozay GC , which specializes in the production of fast- moving products , since 2015 . Initially, the AGC logo adorned the chest of the training and warm-up jerseys of the officials, since 2016 "Alokozay Cola" has been advertised instead.

In December 2018, Hummel announced that it would no longer sponsor the Afghan Football Association after allegations of physical, psychological and sexual abuse by male employees against players on the country's national women's team surfaced

Years	Outfitter
2002-2004	Asics
2005-2008	Adidas
2009-2018	bumblebee
since 2019	Peak

Current

International matches

→ Main article : List of the international matches of the Afghan national football team

The matches of the last twelve months as well as future international matches are listed. The results are mentioned from an Afghan perspective.

date	Venue	opponent	Type of game	Result	Goal scorers
20 Mar 2019	Kuala Lumpur (MAS)	Oman	Airmarine Cup semi-finals	0: 5 (0: 3)
23 Mar 2019	Kuala Lumpur (MAS)	Malaysia	Airmarine Cup game for 3rd place	1: 2 (1: 1)	Shayesteh (32nd)
0June 7, 2019	Dushanbe (TJK)	Tajikistan	Friendly match	1: 1 (0: 0)	Haydary (79.)
06 Sep 2019	Doha (QAT)	Qatar	WM 2022 / AM 2023 qualification	0: 6 (0: 4)
Sep 10 2019	Dushanbe (TJK)	Bangladesh	WM 2022 / AM 2023 qualification	1: 0 (1: 0)	Noor (27.)
Oct 10, 2019	Nutmeg (OMN)	Oman	WM 2022 / AM 2023 qualification	0: 3 (0: 2)
Nov 14, 2019	Dushanbe (TJK)	India	WM 2022 / AM 2023 qualification	1: 1 (1: 0)	Nazary (45th + 1)
Nov 18, 2019	Dushanbe (TJK)	Qatar	WM 2022 / AM 2023 qualification	0: 1 (0: 0)

• green background color = victory of the Afghan team
• yellow background color = tie
• red background color = defeat of the Afghan team

Current supervisory staff

position	Surname
Head coach	Anoush Dastgir
Assistant coach	Shabir Isoufi
Goalkeeping coach	Mansur Faqiryar
Team manager	Mustafa Mehrzad
coordinator	Sayed Ali Kazemi

Current squad

The table lists all the players who are in the squad for the World Cup qualifier against India on November 14 and Qatar on November 19, 2019.

No.	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates
goal
01	Ovays Azizi	Maziya S&RC	Jan. 29, 1992	30th	0
22nd	Faisal Hamidi	Tofan Harirod	0July 6, 1997	2	0
23	Khaiss Wahab	FC Hanau 93	July 17, 1999	0	0
Defense
04th	Zohib Islam Amiri	Gokulam Kerala	0May 2, 1987	56	6th
21st	Sharif Mukhammad	Maziya S&RC	21 Mar 1990	20th	2
16	Milad Intezar	FC Lienden	0Nov 4, 1992	17th	0
15th	Farzad Ataee	Tofan Harirod	21 Mar 1991	10	0
02	David Najem	New Mexico United	May 26, 1992	3	0
19th	Mahboobullah Hanifi	Simorgh Alborz		0	0
midfield
10	Faysal Shayesteh	without a club	June 21, 1991	44	9
11	Noraollah Amiri	Ariana FC	23 Aug 1991	26th	3
08th	Farshad Noor	Nea Salamis Famagusta	0Oct 2, 1994	19th	1
05	Adam Najem	Wigry Suwałki	Jan. 19, 1995	11	0
06th	Noor Husin	Dartford FC	03rd Mar 1997	8th	0
20th	Naeem Rahimi	Pascoe Vale SC	0Apr 4, 1994	5	0
14th	Zelfy Nazary	Western Pride FC	0Jan. 1, 1995	6th	1
attack
09	Khaibar Amani	FC Hanau 93	0Feb 6, 1987	21st	7th
13	Omran Haydary	Lechia Gdansk	Jan. 13, 1998	6th	1
07th	Fareed Sadat	Haukar Hafnarfjörður	Nov 10, 1998	2	0
18th	Rahmatullah Khairkhah	Tofan Harirod	Feb 21, 1996	1	0
As of November 18, 2019

Extended squad

This list shows all players who have played an international match for the Afghan national team in the past 12 months:

No.	Surname	society	birth date	International matches	Länderspiel- gates	Last nomination
goal
	Hellal Hosseini	FC Bayern Alzenau	21 Mar 1997	0	0	vs. Oman , Oct. 10, 2019
Defense
	Hassan Amin	SV Meppen	Oct 12, 1991	28	2	vs. Oman , Oct. 10, 2019
	Benjamin Nadjem	Meiendorfer SV	0Apr 2, 1995	9	0	vs. Oman , Oct. 10, 2019
	Najim Haidary	FC Den Bosch II	Dec 26, 1999	4th	0	vs. Oman , Oct. 10, 2019
	Ali Baset Nazari	Tofan Harirod	0Nov 6, 2001	0	0	vs. Oman , Oct. 10, 2019
	Hoshang Noor Ali	AS Blainville	0Jan. 1, 1994	0	0	vs. Bangladesh , 10 Sep 2019
	Mahdi Rezaee	Shaheen Asmayee	0Feb 6, 1993	0	0	vs. Tajikistan , June 7, 2019  0
	Kani Taher	1. FC Dueren	0Apr 4, 1991	20th	1	vs. Malaysia , 23 Mar. 2019
midfield
	Abassin Alikhil	SC Hessen Dreieich	Apr 19, 1991	38	0	vs. Oman , Oct. 10, 2019
	Mustafa Azadzoy	Nakhon Pathom United FC	July 24, 1992	26th	3	vs. Oman , Oct. 10, 2019
	Omid Popalzay	KVC Winkel Sport	Jan. 25, 1996	25th	3	vs. Bangladesh , 10 Sep 2019
	Yar Mohammad Zakarkhel	Tofan Harirod	08 Sep 1997	0	0	vs. Bangladesh , 10 Sep 2019
	Mustafa Zazai	Visakha FC	0May 9, 1993	24	2	vs. Tajikistan , June 7, 2019  0
	Maziar Kouhyar	without a club	Sep 30 1997	6th	0	vs. Malaysia , 23 Mar. 2019
attack
	Jabar Sharza	Helsingfors IFK	0Apr 6, 1994	9	2	vs. India , Nov. 14, 2019
	Zubayr Amiri	SC Hessen Dreieich	0May 2, 1990	26th	3	vs. Oman , Oct. 10, 2019
	Amruddin Sharifi	FC Neftchi Kochkor-Ata	02nd July 1992	18th	1	vs. Malaysia , 23 Mar. 2019
As of November 14, 2019

Participation of Afghanistan in international tournaments

World Championship

World Championship										World Cup qualification
year	host	Result	Sp.	S.	U	N	T	GT		year	Result	Sp.	S.	U	N	T	GT
1930 to 1938	not a FIFA member									1930 to 1938	not a FIFA member
1950 to 2002	not participated									1950 to 2002	not participated
2006	Germany	not qualified	-	-	-	-	-	-		2006	1 round	2	0	0	2	0	13
2010	South Africa	not qualified	-	-	-	-	-	-		2010	1 round	2	0	0	2	1	5
2014	Brazil	not qualified	-	-	-	-	-	-		2014	1 round	2	0	1	1	1	3
2018	Russia	not qualified	-	-	-	-	-	-		2018	2nd round	8th	3	0	5	8th	24
2022	Qatar		-	-	-	-	-	-		2022		-	-	-	-	-	-
total		not qualified	0	0	0	0	0	0		total	Best result: 2nd round	14th	3	1	10	10	45

Asian Championship

Asian Championship										AM qualification
year	host	Result	Sp.	S.	U	NL	T	GT		year	Result	Sp.	S.	U	N	T	GT
1956 to 1972	not participated									1956 to 1972	not participated
1976	Iran	not qualified	-	-	-	-	-	-		1976	1 round	6th	0	1	5	3	18th
1980	Kuwait	not qualified	-	-	-	-	-	-		1980	1 round	4th	0	1	3	4th	11
1984	Singapore	not qualified	-	-	-	-	-	-		1984	1 round	4th	0	1	3	1	20th
1988 to 2000	not participated									1988 to 2000	not participated
2004	China	not qualified	-	-	-	-	-	-		2004	1 round	2	1	0	1	2	5
2007 to 2015	not participated									2007 to 2015	not participated
2019	UA Emirates	not qualified	-	-	-	-	-	-		2019	3rd round	8th	3	1	6th	9	26th
total		not qualified	0	0	0	0	0	0		total	Best result: 3rd round	24	4th	4th	18th	19th	80

Central Asian Championship

Central Asian Championship
year	host	Result	Sp.	S.	U	NL	T	GT
2018	Uzbekistan	did not take place	0	0	0	0	0	0
total		Best result: -	0	0	0	0	0	0

South Asian Championship (until 2015)

South Asian Championship
year	host	Result	Sp.	S.	U	NL	T	GT
1993 to 1999	not a SAFF member
2003	Bangladesh	Preliminary round	3	0	0	3	0	6th
2005	Pakistan	Preliminary round	3	1	0	2	3	11
2008	Maldives / Sri Lanka	Preliminary round	3	0	2	1	5	7th
2009	Bangladesh	Preliminary round	2	0	0	2	1	6th
2011	India	final	5	3	1	1	13	7th
2013	Nepal	South Asian Champion	5	4th	1	0	9	1
2015	India	final	5	4th	0	1	17th	3
total		Best result: master	26th	12	4th	10	48	41

AFC Challenge Cup (until 2014)

AFC Challenge Cup
year	host	Result	Sp.	S.	U	N	T	GT
2006	Bangladesh	Preliminary round	3	0	2	1	3	5
2008	India	Preliminary round	3	0	0	3	0	10
2010	Sri Lanka	Participation withdrawn
2012	Nepal	not qualified
2014	Maldives	4th Place	5	1	3	1	4th	4th
total		Best result: 4th place	11	1	5	5	7th	19th

Asian Games (until 1998)

Since the Asian Games in 2002 , only the U-23 national teams are eligible to play.

Asian Games
year	host	Result	Sp.	S.	U	N	T	GT
1951	India	4th Place	2	0	0	2	0	5
1954	Philippines	Preliminary round	2	0	0	2	4th	12
1958 to 1998	not participated
total		Best result: 4th place	4th	0	0	4th	4th	17th

Olympic Games (until 1988)

Since the Olympic Games in 1992 , only the U-23 national teams are eligible to play.

Olympic games
year	host	Result	Sp.	S.	U	N	T	GT
1908 to 1936	not an IOC member
1948	London	Preliminary round	1	0	0	1	0	6th
1952 to 1956	not participated
1960	Rome	not qualified	-	-	-	-	-	-
1964 to 1988	not participated
total		Best result: preliminary round	1	0	0	1	0	6th

See also

• List of international matches for the Afghan national football team
• List of Afghan national soccer players

Web links

Commons : Afghanistan national association football team  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Information from National Football Teams
• Information at fifa.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Anupam Kant Verma: The Lions of Khorasan . LiveMint, December 7, 2011.
2. ↑ The FIFA / Coca-Cola World Ranking. In: fifa.com. July 16, 2020, accessed July 21, 2020 . 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Statistics on the Afghanistan Independence Tournament
4. ↑ eloratings.net
5. ^ The National Team of Afghanistan in 1941
6. ↑ Report on the 1948 Olympic football tournament
7. ↑ The National Team of Afghanistan Afghanistan.html 1948
8. ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Afghan duel with Pakistan . ) Sport1 .de, August 19, 2013. Mood of optimism in Afghanistan . ( Memento from February 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Sport1.de, August 20, 2013.
   
9. ↑ FIFA Awards Afghanistan 'Fair Play Award For 2013' . In: RFE / RL . January 14, 2014. Retrieved January 25, 2014.
10. ↑ Attackers Staff, Afghan National Soccer Team's Coach In Back. In: RFE / RL , January 11, 2015 (English).
11. ↑ Daniel Waldschik: A Bad Homburg man becomes national coach. In: Frankfurter Neue Presse , February 9, 2015.
12. ↑ Christoph Bay: Petar Segrt trains Afghanistan. In: Schwarzwälder Bote , November 16, 2015.
13. ↑ Afghanistan loses to Tajikistan , November 13, 2016 (Dari)
14. ↑ De Gelderlander : NEC trainer Dastgir nieuwe bondscoach van Afghanistan , July 12, 2018 (Dutch)
15. ^ Quaid-E-Azam International Cup. In: rsssf.com. RSSSF , accessed May 27, 2016 . 
16. ↑ پیشکسوتان فوتبال افغانستان (pioneers of Afghan football). In: afghaneurosportsfederation.com. Afghan Sportsfederation in Europe, accessed May 27, 2016 . 
17. ↑ Skeledzic: My greatest challenge. In: fifa.com , February 25, 2015.
18. ↑ List of all games according to WFER
19. ↑ List of all games according to FIFA
20. ^ Olympic football tournament 1960 at RSSSF (English)
21. ↑ Afghanistan versus Maldives on YouTube
22. ↑ Afghanistan versus Pakistan on YouTube
23. ↑ Afghanistan versus Sri Lanka on YouTube
24. ↑ Afghanistan versus Bangladesh on YouTube
25. ↑ Afghanistan versus Bhutan on YouTube
26. ↑ fifa.com: Afghanistan in Football Fever , October 15, 2013
27. ↑ Markus Geisler: The most dangerous job in world football. In: Die Welt , May 12, 2016.
28. ↑ Khaama Press: Afghanistan-Palestine football friendly match ends in draw In: Khaama Press , August 19, 2018 (English).
29. ↑ Pfister coaches Afghanistan: “Arriving six times a year” In: transfermarkt.de , February 14, 2017.
30. ↑ World Cup qualification: Afghanistan plays home games in Iran ( Memento from March 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), June 8, 2015
31. ↑ Vietnam.net: Vietnam, Chinese Taipei warm-up for Asian Cup , March 22, 2017
32. ^ Afghanistan at the Asian Games 2002
33. ↑ Afghanistan qualifying for the 2004 Asian Cup
34. ↑ Afghanistan at the South Asian Cup 2005
35. ↑ Jerseys of the Afghan national team ( memento from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) from 2006
36. ↑ hummel presents new Afghanistan football shirt with hijab ( Memento from April 11, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
37. ↑ ^{a b} Afghan Zariza: AFF holding week-long selection trials for the national football team in Germany  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , July 26, 2015  
38. ↑ The national team on March 21, 2017 on Facebook
39. ^ Hummel ends sponsorship of Afghan football federation. Retrieved December 5, 2018, August 3, 2019 (UK English).