The Solomon Islands men's national football team is the national football team of Solomon Islands, administered by the Solomon Islands Football Federation. The Solomon Islands national football team was founded in 1978. They were officially recognised by FIFA a decade later, in 1988.

History

During the 2004 Oceania World Cup qualification/Oceania Cup the team drew 2–2 with Australia and qualified for the second leg. In the second leg, the Solomon Islands national men's team were thrashed by Australia 5–1 and 6–0 in the two matches, with Australia qualifying for the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup.

The Solomons got a second chance against the Socceroos in a two-legged series in September 2005, this time with the winner advancing to a two-legged series against CONMEBOL's fifth-place finisher for a berth in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and the team was thrashed by Australia 7–0 on the first leg and 2–1 in the second played at home.

The Solomons were knocked out of the 2010 FIFA World Cup – having got off to a good start winning every game in their qualifying group and comfortably progressing to the knockout rounds, defeats to New Caledonia and then to Vanuatu saw them knocked out of the competition.

In 2012, the Solomon Islands held the 2012 OFC Nations Cup which was also the second round of World Cup qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup where they finished in fourth place after qualifying through to the knockout stage by defeating Papua New Guinea and having draws against Fiji and New Zealand. They lost in the semi-final after they lost to the champions Tahiti after Jonathan Tehau scored the only goal. They later lost to New Zealand in the third-place playoff. The third round of World Cup qualifying saw the team finish bottom of the group after only taking one win against Tahiti.

After first taking charge of the team in 2017, Spaniard Felipe Vega-Arango was appointed for his second stint in June 2021.

In 2019, they went on a three-week training tour in Netherlands.

In June 2023, Solomon Islands played their friendly match against Southeast Asia countries, Singapore and Malaysia. Solomon Island won the 2023 MSG Prime Minister's Cup after winning against Papua New Guinea (3–1), Vanuatu (1–0) and New Caledonia (1–0) as Raphael Lea'i clinched the golden boot as the tournament top scorer with four goals.

Team image

Kit sponsorship

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

|-

! Kit lier

! Period

|-

|align="Left"| Lotto ||2004–2013

|-

|align="Left"| Bocini ||2014

|-

|align="Left"| OFC || 2015

|-

|None || 2016

|-

|align="Left"| Veto || 2017

|-

|align="Left"| UCAN||2019–2022

|-

|align="Left"| SUNAIS||2022–2024

|-

|align="Left"| Veto|| 2024–2026

|-

|align="Left"| KPI|| 2026–

|}

Sponsors

  • KPI
  • Telekom
  • Capo Apparel

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"

|-

!style="color:#157D65;background:#FFF200"|Position

!style="color:#157D65;background:#FFF200"|Name

|-

| Head coach || Ben Cahn (interim)

|align=center|

|-

| Assistant coach || Richard Greer

|-

| Goalkeeper coach || Tibon Oge

|-

| Kit Manager || Augustine Hou

|-

| Team Manager || Dixion Lauia Anga

|}

Coaching history

thumb|100px|[[Wim Rijsbergen became the manager of the Solomon Islands in 2019]]

:Caretaker managers are listed in italics.

  • Edward Ngara (1995–1996)
  • Wilson Maelaua (1996)
  • George Cowie (2000–2003)
  • Alan Gillett (2004–2005)
  • Airton Andrioli (2006–2009)
  • Jacob Moli (2010–2014)
  • Moses Toata (2015–2016)
  • Felipe Vega-Arango (2017–2018)
  • Moses Toata (2018–2019)
  • Wim Rijsbergen (2019)
  • Stanley Waita (2020–2021)
  • Felipe Vega-Arango (2021–2024)
  • Eddie Marahare (2024)
  • Jacob Moli (2024)
  • Josh Smith (2024–2026)

Caps and goals correct as of 10 October 2024, after the match against Fiji.

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up within the last twelve months.

Player records

:Players in bold are still active with Solomon Islands.

Most appearances

200px|right|thumb|Henry Fa'arodo is the Solomon Islands' most-capped player with 64 appearances.

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

|-

!width=30px|Rank

!class="unsortable" style="width:175px;"|Name

!width=50px|Caps

!width=50px|Goals

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

|-

|1

|align=left|Henry Fa'arodo

|64

|20

|2002–2017

|-

|2

|align=left|Joses Nawo

|55

|8

|2011–present

|-

|3

|align=left|Benjamin Totori

|52

|29

|2007–2019

|-

|4

|align=left|Atkin Kaua

|49

|6

|2016–present

|-

|rowspan=2|5

|align=left|Hadisi Aengari

|44

|0

|2011–present

|-

|align=left|Philip Mango

|45

|0

|2016–present

|-

|rowspan=2|7

|align=left|Nelson Sale Kilifa

|37

|0

|2004–2017

|-

|align=left|Batram Suri

|37

|15

|1992–2005

|-

|9

|align=left|Commins Menapi

|36

|34

|2000–2007

|-

|10

|align="left"|Gagame Feni

|35

|19

|2012–present

|-

|}

Top goalscorers

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

|-

!width=30px|Rank

!class="unsortable" width=175px|Name

!width=50px|Goals

!width=50px|Caps

!width=50px|Ratio

!class="unsortable" width=100px|Career

|-

|1

|align="left"|Commins Menapi

|34

|36

|

|2000–2007

|-

|2

|align="left"|Benjamin Totori

|29

|52

|

|2007–2019

|-

|3

|align="left"|Henry Fa'arodo

|20

|64

|

|2002–2017

|-

|4

|align="left"|Gagame Feni

|19

|35

|

|2012–present

|-

|5

|align="left"|Batram Suri

|15

|37

|

|1992–2005

|-

|6

|align="left"|Raphael Lea'i

|14

|32

|

|2022–present

|-

|7

|align="left"|Noel Berry

|10

|15

|

|1995–2000

|-

|8

|align="left"|Micah Lea'alafa

|9

|31

|

|2016–present

|-

|rowspan=2|9

|align="left"|John Orobulu

|8

|16

|

|2018–present

|-

|align="left"|Joses Nawo

|8

|55

|

|2011–present

|-

|}

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

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

!colspan=9|FIFA World Cup record

!rowspan=39|

!colspan=7|Qualification record

|-

!Year

!Round

!Position

!

!

!*

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

!

|-

|-

| 1930

|colspan=8 rowspan=13|Not member of FIFA

|colspan=7 rowspan=13|Not member of FIFA

|-

| 1934

|-

| 1938

|-

| 1950

|-

| 1954

|-

| 1958

|-

| 1962

|-

| 1966

|-

| 1970

|-

| 1974

|-

| 1978

|-

| 1982

|-

| 1986

|-

| 1990

|colspan="8"|Did not enter

|colspan="7"|Did not enter

|-

| 1994|| colspan="8" rowspan="9" |Did not qualify

|1st Round||4||0||1||3||5||13

|-

| 1998

|2nd Round||8||3||3||2||22||23

|-

| 2002

|1st Round||4||2||0||2||17||10

|-

| 2006

|2nd||11||6||2||3||24||16

|-

| 2010

|SF||6||4||0||2||23||6

|-

| 2014

|4th||9||2||2||5||7||22

|-

| 2018

|2nd||9||4||1||4||10||16

|-

| 2022

|2nd||3||2||0||1||6||8

|-

| 2026

|2nd Round||3||1||0||2||4||5

|-

| 2030

| colspan="8" rowspan="2" |To be determined

| colspan="7" rowspan="2" |To be determined

|-

| 2034

|-

!Total

!

!0/23

!–

!–

!–

!–

!–

!–

!—

!60

!24

!9

!27

!122

!126

|}

OFC Nations Cup

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

!colspan="10"|Oceania Cup / OFC Nations Cup record

!rowspan="26"|

!colspan=6|Qualification record

|-

!Year

!Round

!Position

!

!

!

!

!

!

!Squad

!

!

!

!

!

!

|-

| 1973||colspan="9"|Did not enter||colspan="6"|Did not enter

|-

| 1980||Group stage||8th||3||0||0||3||3||21||||colspan=6|No qualification

|- bgcolor="#cc9966"

| 1996||Semi-finals||3rd||2||0||0||2||1||3||Squad||4||4||0||0||10||1

|-

| 1998||colspan="9"|Did not qualify||4||2||1||1||8||7

|-bgcolor="#cc9966"

| 2000||Third place||3rd||4||2||0||2||7||10||Squad||4||2||1||1||10||9

|-

| 2002||Group stage||6th||3||0||1||2||3||9||Squad||colspan=6|Qualified automatically

|-bgcolor="silver"

| 2004||Runners-up||2nd||7||3||1||3||10||17||Squad||4||3||1||0||14||1

|-

|| 2008||colspan="9"|Did not qualify||6||4||0||2||23||6

|-

|style="border: 3px solid red" bgcolor="LemonChiffon"| 2012

|bgcolor="LemonChiffon"|Fourth place

|bgcolor="LemonChiffon"|4th

|bgcolor="LemonChiffon"|5

|bgcolor="LemonChiffon"|1

|bgcolor="LemonChiffon"|2

|bgcolor="LemonChiffon"|2

|bgcolor="LemonChiffon"|5

|bgcolor="LemonChiffon"|6

|bgcolor="LemonChiffon"|Squad||colspan=6 rowspan=3|Qualified automatically

|- bgcolor="#cc9966"

| 2016

|Semi-finals

|3rd

|4

|1

|0

|3

|2

|4

|Squad

|-

| 2024||Group stage

|6th

|2

|0

|0

|2

|0

|4

|Squad

|-

!Total

!Runners-up

!8/11

!30

!7

!4

!19

!31

!74

!—

!22

!15

!3

!4

!65

!24

|}

Pacific Games

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

!colspan="9"|Pacific Games record

|-

!Year

!Round

!Position

!

!

!

!

!

!

|- style="background:LemonChiffon;"

| 1963

|Fourth place

|4th

|3

|1

|0

|2

|6

|26

|-

| 1966

|Group stage

|6th

|2

|0

|1

|1

|4

|12

|-

| 1969

|Sixth place

|6th

|5

|0

|1

|4

|8

|19

|-

| 1971

|Colspan=8|did not enter

|- style="background:#CC9966;"

| 1975

|Bronze medal

|3rd

|4

|2

|1

|1

|9

|8

|- style="background:#CC9966;"

| 1979

|Bronze medal

|3rd

|5

|4

|0

|1

|24

|5

|-

| 1983

|Group stage

|10th

|3

|1

|0

|2

|0

|11

|-

| 1987

|Colspan=8|did not enter

|- style="background:silver"

| 1991

|Silver medal

|2nd

|5

|4

|1

|0

|12

|3

|- style="background:silver"

| 1995

|Silver medal

|2nd

|6

|4

|0

|2

|34

|10

|-

| 2003

|Group stage

|5th

|4

|2

|1

|1

|14

|4

|- style="background:LemonChiffon;"

| 2007

|Fourth place

|4th

|6

|4

|0

|2

|23

|6

|- style="background:silver"

| 2011

|Silver medal

|2nd

|7

|5

|0

|2

|21

|6

|-

| 2015

|colspan=8|See Solomon Islands national under-23 football team

|-

| 2019

|Group stage

|7th

|5

|2

|1

|2

|30

|9

|-

|- style="background:silver"

| 2023

|Silver medal

|2nd

|5

|2

|1

|2

|30

|9

|-

!Total

!Runners-up

!12/15

!55

!29

!6

!20

!185

!119

|}

Wantok Cup

  • 2008 (July, 1st edition) – First place

Head-to-head record

Updated 27 March 2026 after the match against Bulgaria

Honours

Continental

  • OFC Nations Cup
  • Runners-up (1): 2004
  • Third place (1): 2000

Regional

  • Pacific Games
  • Silver medal (4): 1991, 1995, 2011, 2023
  • Bronze medal (2): 1975, 1979
  • Melanesia Cup / MSG Prime Minister's Cup
  • Champions (2): 1994, 2023
  • Runners-up (2): 1988, 2000
  • Third place (4): 1989, 1992, 1998, 2024

Awards

  • OFC Nations Cup Fair Play Award: 2012

Summary

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

|-

!Competition !! !! !! !!Total

|-

|align=left|OFC Nations Cup

|0||1||1||2

|-

!Total!!0!!1!!1!!2

|}

Historical kits

References

Further reading

  • Solomon Islands Football Federation official website
  • Solomon Islands at OFC
  • Solomon Islands at FIFA