Mozambique

Maputo runs to the rhythm of the Estádio do Zimpeto on match nights, and for the national side, Os Mambas, the ground has become the one fixed point in a story otherwise built on long waits and short bursts of relief. The Mozambican Football Federation organised the game in the country in 1975, joined the Confederation of African Football three years later and FIFA in 1980, laying the administrative groundwork for a team that would take decades to find its footing on the continental stage.

That footing came at the Africa Cup of Nations in 2025, when Mozambique beat Gabon 3–2 in the Round of 16 to end a run of 39 years without a win at the tournament. Regionally, the record reads differently: twice runners-up at the COSAFA Cup, in 2008 and again in 2015, both times losing to Zambia, and third place on three separate occasions, most recently in 2024.

Two names carry the team's history in different directions. Domingues, born Elias Gaspar Pelembe, holds the appearance record with 124 caps and was still on the pitch at the 2025 Cup of Nations as the tournament's oldest outfield player, at 42. Tico-Tico, Manuel José Luís Bucuane, scored Mozambique's first-ever goal at the Cup of Nations back in 1996 and finished his international career as the country's leading scorer. Chiquinho Conde has managed the side since 2019.

South Africa remains the team Mozambique measures itself against, the dominant side in a region where Zambia has twice denied Os Mambas a first COSAFA title. The shirt stays yellow, the shorts green, the socks black.