Togo U23

Qualification is the closest this side has come to a tournament. Togo U23 have entered every Africa U-23 Cup of Nations qualifying campaign since 2000, most recently in 2023, and each time the road has ended before the finals — the Olympic place that goes with that trophy has never been within reach either.

The Togolese Football Federation puts the squad together fresh for each cycle rather than running it as a settled programme, which is part of why the side's history reads as a string of qualifying campaigns rather than a continuous narrative. The one clear marker sits earlier than any of those: an appearance at the 2008 Intercontinental Cup in Malaysia, tied to that year's Olympic qualifying push in Beijing.

Home games are played at the Kégué Stadium in Lomé, a 25,000-capacity ground the side shares with the senior national team, under the same nickname, Les Éperviers — the Sparrowhawks. In 2023 the age group had a rare run of fixtures against Côte d'Ivoire, Morocco and Uzbekistan, friendlies that gave the current crop more games together than most Togolese U23 groups get in a full cycle.

Wisdom Amey has been the name attached to this generation, one of the players the federation has pushed through the U23 setup as it keeps trying to turn qualifying appearances into an actual finals berth.