Tahiti

Third place at the 2024 OFC Nations Cup is the most recent line in Tahiti's record. It sits alongside a bronze from 2002 and, at the top, the title of 2012, the only time the team has won the continental tournament. Steevy Chong Hue is remembered as the hero of that final.

The team's roots go back further than its federation. Tahiti played its first full international on 21 September 1952 and drew 2–2 with New Zealand. The Fédération Tahitienne de Football did not exist until 1989, when Napoleon Spitz founded it. A year later it joined both the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) and FIFA. For decades before that, the side's silverware came from regional events: five Pacific Games golds between 1966 and 1995, and three Polynesia Cups.

The 2013 squad shows how the team is built. Marama Vahirua, at AS Nancy, was the only professional in it. The rest came from a small territory's domestic game and played against full-time players. Nicolas Vallar captained that side, and Jonathan Tehau scored for it. The all-time leader in both caps and goals is Teaonui Tehau.

Home is the Stade Pater Te Hono Nui in Pirae, a suburb of Papeete, where the red shirts, white shorts and red socks of the Toa Aito ("Iron Warriors") are a familiar sight.

The fixture that matters most to them is against New Caledonia. The Pacific neighbours have been beaten and have beaten Tahiti in turn, and the meeting carries its own name, the Derby du Pacifique.