Sao Tome and Principe

In March 2012 the São Tomé and Príncipe national side reached 115th in the FIFA world rankings. The federation behind it, the Federação Santomense de Futebol, had been formed less than a year earlier than that first campaign began to matter, in 1975, and did not join FIFA until 1986; the first of those came on 2 May 1976, against Gabon.

The team plays in yellow shirts with green shorts, taken from the national flag, and has never come close to a World Cup or an Africa Cup of Nations finals. Its own ground, the Estádio Nacional 12 de Julho in the capital, has at times sat outside CAF's approval for internationals over the state of its facilities, which has left a side already short of fixtures with fewer still played in front of its own supporters.

Its best-known player carries both the armband and the scoring load: Luís Leal, who turns out for Cova Piedade, has scored 11 goals in 29 caps for a country most of whose sons who make it in the professional game are schooled elsewhere. Gedson Fernandes came through at Benfica before spells at Tottenham; a pipeline of São Toméan-origin talent has grown up in Portuguese academies rather than at home.

There is no named derby to speak of. What rivalry exists is drawn by geography and by the qualifying draw alike, with Gabon and Equatorial Guinea supplying the opponents São Tomé and Príncipe meets most often in CAF qualifiers, neighbours across the Gulf of Guinea before they are anything else.