Mali national football team

The Mali national football team (Bambara: Mali jamana ntolatantɔn, ) represents Mali in men's international football and is governed by the Malian Football Federation. The team's nickname is Les Aigles. They represent the country at tournaments organized by both FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

While Mali is a major youth football power in both Africa and the world, they have never qualified for any senior FIFA World Cup finals in history. They have qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations on 14 occasions.

Mali were suspended by FIFA on 17 March 2017 due to 'government interference' with the national football association, namely dissolving its executive committee. However, the side was re-instated by FIFA on 29 April after the executive committee was re-introduced by the Malian government.

History

Mali reached the 1972 African Nations Cup final, but lost 3–2 to Congo. They failed to qualify for the finals again until 1994 when they reached the semi-finals, an achievement repeated in 2002, 2004, 2012 and 2013.

They played their first World Cup qualifier in the year 2000. As part of the CAF's qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup, Mali lost in the preliminary round to Libya. Two years later, the country hosted the 2002 African Cup of Nations.

Mali's under-23's team managed to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Greece. The team coached by Cheick Kone managed to reach the quarter-finals of the Olympic tournament before losing to Italy.

In the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, Mali beat Guinea-Bissau in the preliminaries. In the resulting second round, Mali finished fifth in its group. On 27 March 2005, riots broke out in Bamako after Mali lost a World Cup qualifier to Togo, 2–1 on a last minute goal.

In the 2010 African Nations Cup, Mali made football headlines for coming back from losing 4–0 with eleven minutes left to level 4–4 with Angola.

In the AFCON of 2025 Mali defeated Tunisia on penalties, reaching the quarter finals against Senegal, without losing a single match in the whole tournament.

Team kit

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! Manufacturer

! Period

|align="Left"| Kappa ||1998–2003

|align="Left"| Baliston||2003–2007

|align="Left"| Airness ||2007–

Rivalries

Tunisia

thumb|Mali v Tunisia at the [[2021 Africa Cup of Nations.]]

The rivalry between Mali and Tunisia has been evident in recent years in terms of the number of frequent matches, especially in the Africa Cup of Nations. The two teams met for the first time on 6 January 1974, during a friendly match in Bamako, which ended with a 1–0 victory for Mali. The match between the two teams in the 1994 African Cup of Nations, which was held in Tunisia, remains one of the biggest setbacks witnessed by the Tunisian national team, as Mali won the match 2–0, which led to Tunisia's early exclusion from the tournament that was held on its soil. In recent years, the team's matches have continued, as they met in the last three consecutive editions of the African Cup of Nations 2019, 2021 and 2023, all of which were in the group stage, where Mali won two matches and one ended in a draw. The two teams met in the third and final round of the 2022 World Cup qualification. Two round-robin matches were played. However, Tunisia qualified for the World Cup after winning the first leg in Bamako 1–0 with an own goal from defender Moussa Sissako, and a goalless draw prevailed in the return match in Radès. This was Mali's closest chance of qualifying for the World Cup. The competition record remains with Tunisia with a slight advantage. Tunisia won 6 matches, 3 of which ended in draws, and Mali won 5 matches.

Results and fixtures

The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

2025

2026

Coaching staff

{| class="wikitable"

! Position !! Name

| Head coach

| vacant

| Assistant coach

| Alou Badra Diallo

| Goalkeeper coach

| Bounafou Doumbia

| Fitness coaches

| Riedoh Berdien Alexandre Coppolani Bougadary Sangare

| Team doctor

| Dr. Halidou Maiga

| Video analyst

| Gregory Verheyden Stephen Oonan

| International Scouts

| Alessandro Soli Robby Echelmeyer

Coaching history

:Caretaker managers are listed in italics.

Ben Oumar Sy (1960–66)
György Tóth (1966–70)
Karl-Heinz Weigang (1970–73)
Mykola Holovko (1979–82)
Kidian Diallo (1982–89)
Molobaly Sissoko (1989–93)
Mamadou Keïta (1993–97)
Christian Sarramagna (1998–2000)
Romano Mattè (2000–01)
Henryk Kasperczak (2001–02)
Christian Dalger (2002–03)
Henri Stambouli (2003–04)
Alain Moizan (2004)
Mamadou Keïta (2004–05)
Pierre Lechantre (2005–06)
Amadou Pathé Diallo (2006)
Jean-François Jodar (2006–08)
Stephen Keshi (2008–10)
Alain Giresse (2010–12)
Amadou Pathé Diallo (2012)
Patrice Carteron (2012–13)
Amadou Pathé Diallo (2013)
Henryk Kasperczak (2013–15)
Alain Giresse (2015–17)
Mohamed Magassouba (2017–2022)
Éric Chelle (2022–2024)
Tom Saintfiet (2024–2026)

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for the friendly match against Russia on 31 March 2026.

Caps and goals correct as of 31 March 2026, after the match against Russia.

Recent call-ups

The following players have been called up for Mali in the last 12 months.

DCL Player refused to join the team after the call-up.

INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury.

PRE Preliminary squad.

RET Player has retired from international football.

SUS Suspended from the national team.

Records

:Players in bold are still active with Mali.

thumb|200px|right|Seydou Keita is Mali's top goalscorer and their most capped player.

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Most appearances

!width=30px|Rank

! style="width:175px;"|Player

!width=50px|Caps

!width=50px|Goals

! style="width:100px;"|Career

| 1 ||align=left| Seydou Keita || 102 || 25 || 1998–2015

| 2 ||align=left| Mahamadou Sidibé || 97 || 0 || 1996–2010

| 3 ||align=left| Bassala Touré || 95 || 17 || 1992–2008

| 4 ||align=left| Adama Tamboura || 89 || 0 || 2004–2015

| 5 ||align=left| Adama Coulibaly || 85 || 1 || 1998–2014

| 6 ||align=left| Soumaila Coulibaly || 83 || 14 || 1995–2009

| 7 ||align=left|Djigui Diarra|| 74 || 0 || 2015–present

| 8 ||align=left| Mahamadou Diarra || 73 || 7 || 1998–2012

| 9 ||align=left|Adama Traoré || 61 || 9 || 2013–present

| 10 ||align=left|Hamari Traoré || 60 || 3 || 2015–present

{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center;"

|+Top goalscorers

!width=30px|Rank

! style="width:175px;"|Player

!width=50px|Goals

!width=50px|Caps

!width=50px|Ratio

! style="width:100px;"|Career

| 1 ||align=left| Seydou Keita || 25 || 102 || || 1998–2015

| 2 ||align=left| Frédéric Kanouté || 23 || 39 || || 2004–2010

| 3 ||align=left| Bassala Touré || 17 || 95 || || 1994–2008

| rowspan=2|4 ||align=left| Kamory Doumbia|| 15 || 29 || || 2022–present

|align=left| Cheick Diabaté || 15 || 38 || || 2005–2016

| rowspan=2|6 ||align=left| Yaya Dissa || 14 || 42 || || 1995–2001

|align=left| Soumaila Coulibaly || 14 || 83 || || 1995–2009

| 8 ||align=left| Ibrahima Koné|| 13 || 22 || || 2017–present

| 9 ||align=left| Modibo Maïga || 12 || 58 || || 2007–2016

| 10 ||align=left|Salif Keïta || 11 || 26 || || 1964–1972

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! colspan="9" |FIFA World Cup record

! style="width:1px;" rowspan="28"|

! colspan="6" |Qualification record

! style="width:120px;"|Year

! style="width:60px;"|Result

! style="width:60px;"|Position

! style="width:20px;"|

|1930 to 1962

|colspan="8"|Not a FIFA member

|colspan="6"|Not a FIFA member

| 1966||colspan="8"|Withdrew

|colspan="6" rowspan="1"|Withdrew

|1970 to 1990

|colspan="8"|Did not enter

|colspan="6"|Did not enter

| 1994||colspan="8" rowspan="2"|Withdrew

|colspan="6" rowspan="2"|Withdrew

| 1998

| 2002||colspan="8" rowspan="7"|Did not qualify

| 2006

|12

|15

| 2010

|12

|21

|15

| 2014

| 2018

|11

| 2022

|11

| 2026

|10

|17

| 2030

|colspan=9 rowspan=2|To be determined

| 2034

!Total

!58

!24

!16

!18

!78

!59

Africa Cup of Nations

Mali have never won the Africa Cup of Nations; their best result at the tournament was runners-up in 1972. Mali have qualified for the tournament fourteen times in total, finishing as runners-up once, third twice, and fourth three times. Prior to 2008, each time Mali qualified, they reached the knockout stage having only qualified four times before then.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! colspan="10" |Africa Cup of Nations record

! rowspan="41" width="1" |

! colspan="6" |Qualification record

!|Year

!|Result

!|Position

!Squad

| 1957

|rowspan="2" colspan="9"|Part of

|rowspan="2" colspan="6"|Part of

| 1959

| 1962

|rowspan="2" colspan="9"|Did not enter

|rowspan="2" colspan="6"|Did not enter

| 1963

| 1965

|rowspan="3" colspan="9"|Did not qualify

|rowspan="3" colspan="6"|Did not qualify

| 1968

| 1970

|- style="background:silver;"

| 1972

|Runners-up

|2nd

|11

|Squad

| 1974

|colspan="9" rowspan="10"|Did not qualify

| 1976

| 1978

| 1980

|colspan="6"|Did not enter

| 1982

| 1984

| 1986

| 1988

|colspan="6"|Withdrew

| 1990

| 1992

|- style="background:#9acdff;"

| 1994

|Fourth place

|4th

|Squad

| 1996

|colspan="9" rowspan="3"|Did not qualify

|10

|15

|10

| 1998

| 2000

|- style="background:#9acdff;"

|style="border: 3px solid red"| 2002

|rowspan=2|Fourth place

|rowspan=2|4th

|Squad

|colspan="6"|Qualified as hosts

|- style="background:#9acdff;"

| 2004

|10

|Squad

| 2006

|colspan="9"|Did not qualify

|12

|15

| 2008

|rowspan=2|Group stage

|10th

|Squad

|10

| 2010

|9th

|Squad

|12

|21

|15

|- style="background:#cc9966;"

| 2012

|rowspan=2|Third place

|rowspan=2|3rd

|Squad

|- style="background:#cc9966;"

| 2013

|Squad

| 2015

|rowspan=2|Group stage

|10th

|Squad

| 2017

|12th

|Squad

|13

| 2019

|rowspan=2|Round of 16

|rowspan=2|11th

|Squad

|10

| 2021

|Squad

|10

| 2023

|rowspan=2|Quarter-finals

| 7th

| 5

| 2

| 1

| 6

| 4

| Squad

| 6

| 5

| 0

| 1

| 15

| 2

| 2025

|8th

| Squad

| 6

| 4

| 2

| 0

| 10

| 1

| 2027

| colspan="9" rowspan="2" |To be determined

| colspan="6" rowspan="2" |To be determined

| 2029

!Total

!Runners-up

!14/35

!64

!21

!25

!18

!74

!73

!—

!146

!74

!34

!38

!224

!136

African Nations Championship

Mali has competed in five African Nations Championship tournaments, finishing as runners-up twice.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

! colspan="9" |African Nations Championship record

! width="1" rowspan="9" |

! colspan="6" |Qualification record

!|Year

!|Result

!|Position

| 2009

|colspan="8"|Did not qualify

| 2011

|Group stage

|13th

| 2014

|Quarter-finals

|8th

|- style="background:silver;"

| 2016

|Runners-up

|2nd

| 2018

|colspan="8"|Did not qualify

|- style="background:silver;"

| 2020

|Runners-up

|2nd

|| 2022

|Group stage

|15th

!Total

!Runners-up

!5/7

!21

!19

!21

!20

!10

!32

!11

African Games

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

!colspan=9|African Games record

!Year

!Result

|- style="background:silver;"

| 1965||Runners-up||5||3||1||1||10||5

| 1973||colspan=7|Did not qualify

| 1978||Group stage||3||0||2||1||3||5

| 1987||colspan=7|Did not qualify

|1991–present

|colspan=8|See Mali national under-23 football team

!Total||2/4||8||3||3||2||13||10

Head-to-head record

As of 31 March 2026

{| class="wikitable sortable"

!width="2" |Team

!width="2" |Confederation

!width="2" |P

!width="2" |W

!width="2" |D

!width="2" |L

!width="2" |GF

!width="2" |GA

!width="2" |GD

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||24||10||2||12||22||36||–14

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||4||1||2||1||8||5||+3

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||16||8||7||1||27||16||+11

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||7||6||0||1||19||5||+14

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||21||13||3||5||36||20||+16

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||6||0||2||4||3||8||–5

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||7||3||2||2||10||4||+6

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||1||0||1||0||0||0||0

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||2||2||0||0||4||2||+2

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|AFC

||2||1||0||1||3||5||–2

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||10||5||2||3||14||9||+5

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||7||3||1||3||11||10||+1

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||3||2||1||0||6||0||+6

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|UEFA

||1||0||0||1||1||2||–1

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||10||4||2||4||8||8||0

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||3||3||0||0||5||0||+5

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||2||2||0||0||7||0||+7

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||2||2||0||0||3||0||+3

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||2||1||0||1||4||3||+1

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||12||2||5||5||10||16||–6

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||18||7||5||6||22||16||+6

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||19||3||6||10||15||31||–16

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||39||10||17||12||43||43||0

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||14||10||3||1||27||9||+18

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|AFC

||1||1||0||0||2||1||+1

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||26||2||8||16||17||47||–30

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|AFC

||1||0||1||0||1||1||0

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|AFC

||1||0||1||0||0||0||0

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||2||1||1||0||4||2||+2

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|AFC

||1||0||0||1||0||1||–1

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|AFC

||1||0||0||1||1||3||–2

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|AFC

||3||0||0||3||4||10||–10

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||10||5||3||2||19||11||+8

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||7||3||1||3||9||10||–1

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|UEFA

||1||1||0||0||3||1||+2

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||3||2||1||0||6||1||+5

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||5||3||1||1||8||5||+3

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||30||18||7||5||60||23||+37

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||20||5||7||8||13||32||–19

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||5||3||1||1||6||4||+2

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||4||2||1||1||5||3||+2

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||8||5||2||1||10||4||+6

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||10||2||3||5||7||12||–5

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|AFC

||2||0||1||1||1||2||–1

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|AFC

||1||0||1||0||0||0||0

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|UEFA

||1||0||1||0||0||0||0

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||3||1||1||1||3||2||+1

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|AFC

||2||1||0||1||4||6||–2

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||33||8||12||13||33||42||–9

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||2||2||0||0||5||0||+5

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||13||4||7||2||17||9||+8

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||6||2||2||2||7||7||0

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||2||2||0||0||5||0||+5

|- bgcolor=CCFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||4||2||1||1||7||4||+3

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||14||6||2||6||23||15||+8

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||9||4||1||4||9||9||0

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|CAF

||4||1||2||1||8||4||+4

|- bgcolor=FFFFCC

|align=center|AFC

||1||0||1||0||0||0||0

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||6||0||3||3||4||9||–5

|- bgcolor=FFCCCC

|align=center|CAF

||6||2||1||3||4||5||–1

Honours

Continental

Africa Cup of Nations
15px Runners-up (1): 1972
15px Third place (2): 2012, 2013
African Nations Championship
15px Runners-up (2): 2016, 2020
African Games1
15px Silver medal (1): 1965

Regional

Amilcar Cabral Cup
Champions (3): 1989, 1997, 2007
Runners-up (4): 1979, 1981, 1987, 1988
Third place (5): 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 2001
UEMOA Tournament
Runners-up (3): 2008, 2011, 2016

Summary

{| class="wikitable" width=30% style="font-size:90%; text-align:center;"

!Competition !! !! !! !!Total

|align=left|CAF African Cup of Nations

|0 || 1 || 2 || 3

|align=left|CAF African Nations Championship

|0 || 2 || 0 || 2

!Total !! 0 !! 3 !! 2 !! 5

;Notes

Competition organized by ANOCA, officially not recognized by FIFA.

Notes

References

External links

Mali FF (archived 28 January 2020)
Mali Football Portal
Mali at CAF
Mali at FIFA