North Macedonia

The team began as a republic side inside Yugoslavia. The Football Federation of the People's Republic of Macedonia was set up in 1949. Darko Pančev is the clearest case: he won the European Cup with Red Star Belgrade in 1991 while Macedonia had no national team to pick him for.

Independence, confirmed by referendum that same year, changed that. The first official international came on 13 October 1993 and ended in a 4–1 win over Slovenia. FIFA and UEFA admitted the federation as a separate member in 1994. In 2019, after the Prespa Agreement settled the naming dispute with Greece, team and federation became North Macedonia.

The years since have brought the results that the early ones did not promise. Goran Pandev, the most-capped player with 122 appearances and the top scorer with 38 goals, led the side to the European Championship finals, delayed until 2021, the first time the country had reached one. They went out in the group stage. In the same period they won their Nations League group in League C, which earned promotion to League B. The 2022 World Cup play-off gave them their nearest approach to a World Cup: they reached the final and lost 2–0 to Portugal.

The team, known as the Lions or the Red Lynxes, plays in red and yellow, the colours of the national flag, at the 33,011-seat Toše Proeski Arena in Skopje.

Their sharpest rivalries are with Bulgaria and Greece. Neither has a derby name. Both come from disputes over history and identity, which the country's independence and later its new name did not settle.