Djibouti U20

In a 2021 Arab Championship match, Djibouti's under-20 side went down 0-8 to Morocco, then followed it with a 0-5 defeat to Tajikistan.

The Djibouti U20 wears the same badge and the same nickname as the senior side, the Sharks of the Red Sea, and trains alongside it at the Stade National El Hadj Hassan Gouled Aptidon, a 20,000-capacity ground in Djibouti City. The federation behind both sides, the Djiboutian Football Federation, dates to 1979 and joined FIFA in 1994, but the youth team itself has no separate origin story — it exists as an extension of that structure rather than a project with its own founding date.

Its record in continental youth football is thin. At the CECAFA U20 Championship, where Djibouti has entered in 2019, 2022 and 2024, the team has never escaped the group stage, most recently finishing bottom of Group A. A 0-1 qualifying loss to South Sudan in 2022 was typical of the margins involved. The side also missed out on qualification for the 2021 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations.

None of this has produced a title. Entries at the Arab Championship pit Djibouti against sides from a different footballing world altogether.