Sudan national football team

The Sudan national football team () represents Sudan in international football and is controlled by the Sudan Football Association, the governing body for football in Sudan. Its home ground is Khartoum Stadium in the capital Khartoum.

In 1957, it was one of the three teams to participate in the inaugural Africa Cup of Nations, the other two being Egypt and Ethiopia. They won the 1970 Africa Cup of Nations as hosts.

History

Beginning and an African giant (1946–1970)

The Sudan Football Association was founded in 1936 and thus it became one of the oldest football associations to exist in Africa. However, before the foundation of the Football Association, Sudan had started experiencing football brought to the country by the British colonizers since early 20th century via Egypt. Other Sudanese clubs founded at that time include Al-Hilal Omdurman, Al-Merrikh, which led to popularization of football in the country. The Khartoum League became the first national league to be played in Sudan, laying ground for the future development of Sudanese football.

Being experienced early with football, Sudan was quick to affiliate itself with FIFA in 1948, and soon after, Sudanese officials were instrumental, along with Ethiopian, South African and Egyptian counterparts, forming the Confederation of African Football in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum in 1957. Following the establishment of CAF, Sudan participated in the 1957 African Cup of Nations, the first historic Africa Cup of Nations which Sudan was host. The national team finished third, as South Africa was banned over apartheid.

During that early era, Sudan produced some of the finest players, most notably Mustafa Azhari, the captain of Sudan during this period; Nasr El-Din Abbas, who became Sudan's top scorer in the country's football team; Siddiq Manzul, who was an instrumental leader in Sudan's forward; Ali Gagarin with his meteoric ability. Sudan then won the 1970 African Cup of Nations, their only African trophy up to date. After some losses and a draw to Mauritania, Sudan failed to qualify for the World Cup.

Kit supplier

Since 2023, AB Sport has been the kit supplier of the national team.

Team image

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 history

Saleh Rajab (1956)
Jozsef Hada (1957 – 1959)
Lozan Kotsev (1959 – 1964)
Jiří Starosta (1964 – 1968)
Muhamed Hassan Kheiri (1968 – 1970)
Abdel Fatah Hemed (1970 – 1974)
Ivan Yanko (1974 – 1976)
Ebrahim Kabir (1976 – 1978)
Burkhard Ziese (1978 – 1980)
Muhamed Abdeen (1980-1981)
Sayed Saleem (1981 – 1996)
Muhamed Mazda (1996, 2005 – 2008, 2010 – 2015, 2016)
Nasreldin Jaksa (1996)
Sharafeldin Musa (1998)
Muhamed Mahmoud (1999)
Fozi el-Mardi (2000)
Zoran Đorđević (2000)
Ahmed Babeker (2000 – 2002)
Wojciech Łazarek (2002 – 2004)
Stephen Constantine (2009 – 2010)
Ahmed Babeker (2010, 2015)
Hamdan Hemed (2016)
Zdravko Logarušić (2017 – 2019)
Khaled Bakhit (2020)
Hubert Velud (2020 – 2021)
Burhan Tia (2021 – 2023)
Ezzaki Badou (2023)
Youssef Fertout (2023)
James Kwesi Appiah (2023 – present)

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations on 24 December 2025.

Caps and goals are correct as of 3 January 2026, after the match against Senegal.

Recent call-ups

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

;Notes

INJ = Withdrew due to injury
PRE = Preliminary squad / standby
RET = Retired from the national team

Records

:Players in bold are still active with Sudan.

Most appearances

200px|right|thumb|[[Haitham Mustafa is Sudan's most capped player with 98 appearances.]]

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

!width=30px|Rank

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

! width=50px|Caps

! width=50px|Goals

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

|1 ||align=left| Haitham Mustafa || 98 || 8 || 1998–2012

|2 ||align=left| Muhannad El Tahir || 90 || 16 || 2004–2018

|3 ||align=left| Badreldin Galag || 88 || 9 || 2002–2012

|4 ||align=left| El Muez Mahgoub || 87 || 0 || 2002–2015

|5 ||align=left| Richard Justin || 85 || 7 || 1999–2008

|6 ||align=left| Nasr Eldin El Shigail || 83 || 0 || 2007–2021

|7 ||align=left| Ramadan Agab || 81 || 8 || 2010–present

|8 ||align=left| Abuaagla Abdalla || 78 || 3 || 2015–present

|rowspan = 2|9 ||align=left| Amir Kamal || 72 || 2 || 2010–2025

|align=left|Ala'a Eldin Yousif || 72 || 5 || 2004–2014

Top goalscorers

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

! width=30px|Rank

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

! width=50px|Goals

! width=50px|Caps

! width=50px|Ratio

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

|1 ||align=left| Nasr El-Din Abbas || 27 || 52 || || 1963–1972

|2 ||align=left| Haytham Tambal || 24 || 66 || || 2003–2011

| 3 ||align=left| Muhamed Abdelrahman || 23 || 64 || || 2017–present

|rowspan=2| 4 ||align=left| Ali Gagarin || 18 || 45 || || 1967–1979

|align=left| Faisal Agab || 18 || 47 || || 1998–2012

|6 ||align=left|Muhannad El Tahir || 16 || 90 || || 2004-2018

|7 ||align=left|Mudather Karika || 13 || 62 || || 2007–2016

|8 ||align=left| Hasabu El-Sagheir || 11 || 29 || || 1965–1972

|rowspan=2|9 ||align=left| Abdelhameed Amarri || 10 || 29 || || 2004–2011

| align=left| Seif Teiri || 10 || 44 || || 2017–present

Competitive record

FIFA World Cup

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

!colspan=9|FIFA World Cup record

!rowspan=37|

!colspan=9|Qualification record

!Year

!Round

!Position

|1930 to 1938

|colspan=8 |Part of

|colspan=6 |Part of

|1950 and 1954

|colspan=8 |Did not enter

|colspan=6 |Did not enter

| 1958||colspan=8|Withdrew in qualification

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

| 1962||rowspan=2 colspan=8|Withdrew||rowspan=2 colspan=6|Withdrew

| 1966

| 1970||rowspan=2 colspan=8|Did not qualify

|8||2||4||2||15||16

| 1974

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

| 1978||colspan=8|Withdrew||colspan=6|Withdrew

| 1982||rowspan=3 colspan=8|Did not qualify

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

| 1986

|4||0||3||1||1||5

| 1990

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

| 1994||colspan=8|Withdrew||colspan=6|Withdrew

| 1998||rowspan=8 colspan=8|Did not qualify

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

| 2002

|10||5||0||5||10||12

| 2006

|12||2||4||6||9||22

| 2010

|12||3||1||8||11||18

| 2014

|6||0||2||4||3||14

| 2018

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

| 2022

|8||1||4||3||8||13

| 2026

|10||3||4||3||8||6

| 2030

|rowspan=2 colspan=9|To be determined

| 2034

!Total|| |||| || || || || || !!82||19||25||38||72||120

Olympic Games

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

!colspan=9|Olympic Games record

!colspan=9|Appearances: 1

!Year

!Round

!Position

|1896 – 1956||colspan=8|Did not enter

| 1960||colspan=8 rowspan=3|Did not qualify

| 1964

| 1968

| 1972||Group stage||15th||3||0||0||3||1||5

| 1976||colspan=8|Did not qualify

| 1980||colspan=8|Did not enter

| 1984||colspan=8 rowspan=3|Did not qualify

| 1988

| 1992

| 1996||colspan=8|Did not enter

| 2000||colspan=8 rowspan=7|Did not qualify

| 2004

| 2008

| 2012

| 2016

| 2020

| 2024

!Total||Group stage||1/28||3||0||0||3||1||5

Football at the Summer Olympics has been an under-23 tournament since the 1992 edition.

Africa Cup of Nations

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

! colspan=9|Africa Cup of Nations record

! rowspan="40" |

!colspan=6|Qualification record

!Year

!Round

!Position

|- style="background:#c96;"

|style="border: 3px solid red"| 1957||Third place||3rd||1||0||0||1||1||2

|colspan=6|Qualified as hosts

|- style="background:silver;"

| 1959||Runners-up||2nd||2||1||0||1||2||2

|colspan=6|No qualification

| 1962||colspan=8|Did not enter

|colspan=6|Did not enter

|- style="background:silver;"

| 1963||Runners-up||2nd||3||1||1||1||6||5

| 1965||colspan=8 rowspan=2|Did not qualify

|14

| 1968

|- style="background:gold;"

|style="border: 3px solid red"| 1970||Champions||1st||5||4||0||1||8||3

|colspan=6|Qualified as hosts

| 1972||Group stage||7th||3||0||2||1||4||6

|colspan=6|Qualified as defending champions

| 1974||colspan=8|Did not qualify

| 1976||Group stage||7th||3||0||2||1||3||4

| 1978||colspan=8|Withdrew

|colspan=6|Withdrew

| 1980||colspan=8|Did not qualify

| 1982||colspan=8|Did not enter

|colspan=6|Did not enter

| 1984||colspan=8|Did not qualify

| 1986||colspan=8|Withdrew

|colspan=6|Withdrew

| 1988||colspan=8 rowspan=5|Did not qualify

| 1990

| 1992

| 1994

| 1996

|10

|14

| 1998||colspan=8|Withdrew

|colspan=6|Withdrew

| 2000||colspan=8|Did not enter

|colspan=6|Did not enter

| 2002||colspan=8 rowspan=3|Did not qualify

|10

| 2004

| 2006

|12

|22

| 2008||Group stage||16th||3||0||0||3||0||9

|13

| 2010||colspan=8|Did not qualify

|10

|15

| 2012||Quarter-finals||8th||4||1||1||2||4||7

| 2013||colspan=8 rowspan=4|Did not qualify

| 2015

|11

| 2017

| 2019

|13

| 2021||Group stage||21st||3||0||1||2||1||4

| 2023||colspan=8|Did not qualify

|10

| 2025||Round of 16

|15th

| 2027|| colspan="8" rowspan="2" |To be determined

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

| 2029

!Total||1 Title||10/35||31||8||7||16||31||50

!133

!52

!19

!62

!144

!170

African Games

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

!colspan=9|African Games record

!colspan=9|Appearances: 1

!Year

!Round

!Position

| 1965||colspan=8 rowspan=2|Did not enter

| 1973

| 1978||colspan=8|Did not enter

| 1987||colspan=8|Did not qualify

| 1991||colspan=8 rowspan=3|Did not enter

| 1995

| 1999

| 2003||colspan=8|Withdrew

| 2007||colspan=8 rowspan=2|Did not enter

| 2011

| 2015||Group stage||5th||3||1||1||1||2||2

| 2019||colspan=8 rowspan=2|To be determined

| 2023

!All Total||Group stage||1/11||3||1||1||1||2||2

Prior to the Cairo 1991 campaign, the Football at the All-Africa Games was open to full senior national teams.

African Nations Championship

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

!colspan=9|African Nations Championship record

! rowspan="39" |

!colspan=6|Qualification record

!Year

!Round

!Position

| 2009||colspan=8|Did not qualify

|- style="background:#c96;"

|style="border: 3px solid red"| 2011||Third place||3rd||6||4||1||1||5||2

|colspan=6|Qualified as hosts

| 2014||colspan=8 rowspan=2|Did not qualify

| 2016

|- style="background:#c96;"

| 2018||Third place||3rd||6||4||1||1||5||3

| 2020||colspan=8|Did not qualify

| 2022||Group stage||12th||3||1||0||2||4||6

|- style="background:#9acdff"

| 2024||Fourth place||4th||6||2||2||2||7||4

!Total||Third place||4/7||21||11||4||6||21||15

!20

!26

!20

CECAFA Cup

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

!colspan=9|CECAFA Cup record

!colspan=9|Appearances: 22

!Year

!Round

!Position

| 1973||colspan=8 rowspan=6|Did not enter

| 1974

| 1975

| 1976

| 1977

| 1978

| 1979||Group stage||6th||2||0||1||1||1||5

|- style="background:gold;"

|style="border: 3px solid red"| 1980||Champions||1st||4||3||0||1||5||2

| 1981||rowspan=3|Group stage||7th||3||0||2||1||2||4

| 1982||6th||2||0||0||2||0||3

| 1983||5th||4||2||1||1||4||3

| 1984||colspan=8 rowspan=5|Did not enter

| 1985

| 1987

| 1988

| 1989

|- style="background:silver;"

| 1990||Runners-up||2nd||4||2||1||1||5||3

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

| 1991||Fourth place||4th||4||0||1||3||3||9

| 1992||colspan=8 rowspan=3|Did not enter

| 1994

| 1995

|- style="background:#c96;"

|style="border: 3px solid red"| 1996||Third place||3rd||4||1||2||1||6||6

| 1999||Quarter-finals||8th||3||0||2||1||1||4

| 2000||colspan=8 rowspan=2|Did not enter

| 2001

| 2002||Group stage||6th||4||1||1||2||4||5

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

|style="border: 3px solid red"| 2003||Fourth place||4th||4||2||1||1||8||2

|- style="background:#c96;"

| 2004||Third place||3rd||5||3||1||1||11||6

| 2005||Group stage||6th||4||2||0||2||7||12

|- style="background:gold;"

| 2006||Champions||1st||6||2||3||1||7||4

|- style="background:gold;"

| 2007

|Champions||1st||5||2||3||0||8||6

| 2008||Group stage||6th||4||1||2||1||3||2

| 2009||colspan=8|Did not enter

| 2010||Group stage||10th||3||0||1||2||0||5

|- style="background:#c96;"

| 2011||Third place||3rd||6||3||3||0||6||3

| 2012||Group stage||9th||3||1||0||2||1||3

|- style="background:silver;"

| 2013||Runners-up||2nd||6||4||0||2||8||4

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

| 2015||Fourth place||4th||6||2||1||3||7||4

| 2017||colspan=8|Did not enter

|-style="background;9acadff;"

| 2019||Group stage||7th||3||0||2||1|| 2||3

!Total||3 Titles||22/39||89||31||29||34||89||64

Arab Cup

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

!colspan=9|FIFA Arab Cup record

!colspan=9|Appearances: 5

!Year

!Round

!Position

| 1963||colspan=8 rowspan=3|Did not enter

| 1964

| 1966

| 1985||colspan=8|Did not qualify

| 1988||colspan=8 rowspan=2|Did not enter

| 1992

| 1998||rowspan=5|Group stage||7th||2||1||0||1||2||4

| 2002||7th||4||1||1||2||4||5

| 2012||7th||3||1||2||0||4||2

| 2021||16th||3||0||0||3||0||10

| 2025||15th||3||0||1||2||1||5

!Total||Group stage||4/10||15||3||4||8||11||26

Arab Games

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

!colspan=9|Arab Games record

!colspan=9|Appearances: 3

!Year

!Round

!Position

| 1953||colspan=8 rowspan=3|Did not enter

| 1957

| 1961

|- style="background:silver;"

| 1965||Silver Medal||2nd||6||5||0||1||32||5

| 1976||colspan=8 rowspan=5|Did not enter

| 1985

| 1992

| 1997

| 1999

| 2004||colspan=8|No tournament

| 2007||Group stage||5th||4||0||0||4||0||12

| 2011||Group stage||5th||3||1||1||1||1||2

|-style="background:#c96;"

| 2023||Bronze Medal||3rd||5||2||1||2||8||6

!Total||Silver Medal||4/12||18||8||2||8||41||25

Prior to the Algeria 2023 campaign, the Football at the Arab Games was open to full senior national teams.

Honours

Continental

Africa Cup of Nations
22px Champions (1): 1970
Runners-up (2): 1959, 1963
Third place (1): 1957
African Nations Championship
Third place (2): 2011, 2018

Regional

CECAFA Cup
Champions (3): 1980, 2006, 2007
Runners-up (2): 1990, 2013
Third place (3): 1996, 2004, 2011
Arab Games
Silver medal (1): 1965
Bronze medal (1): 2023
Palestine Cup of Nations
Third place (1): 1975

Friendly

LG Cup (1): 2011

Summary

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

!Competition !! !! !! !!Total

|align=left|CAF African Cup of Nations

|1 || 2 || 1 || 4

|align=left|CAF African Nations Championship

|0 || 0 || 2 || 2

!Total !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 6

References

External links

Sudan Football Association – الاتحاد السوداني لكرة القدم
Sudan at CAF
Sudan at FIFA
Sudan national football team image