Montenegro

Independence came first, in 2006, and the national team followed the paperwork: the Football Association of Montenegro was formed that year, UEFA admitted it on 26 January 2007, FIFA four months later as the 208th member. It took less than two months from FIFA membership to a first cap, and the debut could not have gone better: a 2–1 win over Hungary in Podgorica on 24 March 2007, Mirko Vučinić scoring the opening goal for a country that, a year earlier, had no team at all.

The Brave Falcons, as they became known, have spent the years since establishing a ceiling rather than breaking through one. The closest anyone came to a tournament was the Euro 2012 play-off, lost to the Czech Republic, and the qualifying campaign that got them there included a 1–0 win away to Ukraine that few had expected. There have been extremes at both ends: a 6–0 defeat of San Marino in 2012 and, seven years later, a 7–0 defeat to England went the other way.

Stevan Jovetić has scored more goals for the country than anyone else, 36 in 78 appearances stretching back to that first generation, while Fatos Bećiraj holds the appearance record. Vučinić, the scorer of that first goal in 2007, later captained the side and now manages it, having taken over in September 2025 from Robert Prosinečki. Games against Serbia carry the weight of the split that created Montenegro's team in the first place, sharpened rather than softened by the years apart. What still eludes the Brave Falcons is what the play-off defeat to the Czechs came closest to: a first appearance at a major tournament.