Myanmar national football team

Burma sent players to the Philippines in 1954 Asian Games and captured a bronze medal, behind Taiwan (gold) and South Korea (silver); this fact marked the beginning of the golden age. On the other hand, the nation was not expected to contend for a medal in the Olympic-type Asian Games. In the meantime, this delegation became the first male Burmese team to win a continental medal. But this was only the beginning. Then, against all odds, the team of Burma bettered their 1954 effort by winning the gold medal in the Asian Games, which were held at Bangkok in the mid-1960s. In that tournament, Burma beat Iran in the gold-medal game.

The 1966 Asian Games gold medal winning squad established itself as one of the two best teams in the region as it finished as runner-up to Iran at the 1968 Asian Cup. After claiming silver in 1968, the men's soccer team had a strong performance in the early 1970s as it won the right to compete in the 1972 Summer Olympics, which were held at Munich (West Germany), upon being one of the three finalists in the Asian tournament. Despite losing almost all their matches, the Burmese players captured the Fair Play Award. The following year, the nation earned its fifth consecutive Southeast Asian Games gold medal at Singapore City (Kuala Lumpur'65, Bangkok'67, Rangoon'69, and Kuala Lumpur '71).

Three years before that, the national team wrote perhaps their most important chapter: they captured the continental title for the second time in a row, after the Burmese Olympic Committee sent footballers to Thailand for the 1970 Asian Games. Burma thus became the second soccer squad to win the Asian tournament twice. Certainly, they were declared national heroes in Rangoon, the then capital of Burma, with their second consecutive gold medal in men's soccer.

During this golden era, Burma produced many talented footballers. One among them is Suk Bahadur who is now considered as the greatest Burmese footballer of all times for his outstanding contribution to Burmese football.

Over the following years, due in large part to several problems in the country, the national side was not able to successfully defend its Asian title.[4]

During the later era, Burma had been unable to achieve similar results like the golden age, due to many factors. The collapse of whole Burmese football system during the rule of Ne Win and later, the junta, had a negative effect for Burmese team. Lack of funding, poor infrastructure, affected many Burmese players to seek their opportunity in another nations, or to retire and went disappearance. On the same time, the rise of Malaysia, Indonesia, and especially Vietnam and the Philippines, had made Myanmar's ability faded away. The series of decline had made Myanmar from a continental power to reduce into then one of Asia's weakest teams.

Despite this, Myanmar managed to win silver medal in 1993 Southeast Asian Games, after losing to Thailand in the final, or the 2004 Tiger Cup when Myanmar won bronze.

Myanmar's 2011 reforms had been a major point of turning Myanmar's football, which had declined since 1970s. During this era, a new wave of Burmese football had arrived with the change of Myanmar's political climate, after many years under junta's rule.

The arrival of Gerd Zeise, a German manager, had been the crucial point. Under Gerd, Myanmar's football since reforms has witnessed a significant progress. The U-20 Myanmar team had stunned the world by qualifying to Myanmar's first ever FIFA tournament, the 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup after going to the semi-finals in the 2014 AFC U-19 Championship as host. In 2016 AFF Suzuki Cup, Myanmar, as host, once again went to semi-finals, only losing to eventual champions, Thailand.

However, between these successes, a lot of problems remain. Myanmar's football capability has been questioned after their disastrous 2018 World Cup qualification; while on the same time, a lot of teams in Asia have also risen up after many years under shadows. Once again, Myanmar failed to qualify for 2019 AFC Asian Cup, when they suffered a tremendous 1–5 defeat on the hand of Kyrgyzstan. Under Antoine Hey, Myanmar also had an unsuccessful 2018 AFF Championship, with the team was knocked out from the group stage, and Hey resigned aftermath.

Myanmar joined the 2022 World Cup qualification in a tough group composing Asian powerhouse Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia under Montenegrin manager Miodrag Radulović. However, Myanmar opened their World Cup hunt with a shock away loss to minnows Mongolia[5] before continued to fall to Japan at home 0–2[6] and suffered one of the most humiliating loss in its World Cup qualifying record, a 0–7 demolition to Kyrgyzstan away.[7] This led to Miodrag being fired and Hey was reinstalled as coach of Myanmar, where he led Myanmar to a thrilling victory 4–3 at home to Tajikistan and obtained the country's first three points in 2022 World Cup qualification.[8] With a rising spirits following the thrilling win at home to Tajikistan, Myanmar continued its resurgence by beating Mongolia at home 1–0 to keep its World Cup hope alive.[9]

• Disqualified in 2006 for withdrawing from qualification in 2002.
• Initially banned from 2018 for crowd trouble during 2014 World Cup qualifying match but later overturned to and matches to be played on neutral soil.[12][13]

*Under-23 tournament since 2002

*Under-23 tournament since 2001

• ¹ : Non FIFA 'A' international match

The following 23 players were called up for the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Tajikistan on 14 November and Mongolia on 19 November 2019.
Caps and goals updated as of 19 November 2019 after the match against Mongolia.

The following players have also been called-up recently in the last 12 months.

Notes:

• ^INJ Withdrew from squad due to injury
• ^PRE Preliminary squad
• ^SUS Suspended
• ^RET Retired from the national team
• ^WD Player withdrew from the squad for non-injury related reasons

• Olympic Football Tournament

• Fair Play Award: 1972

• AFC Asian Cup

• Runners-up (1): 1968

• Asian Games

• Gold medal (2): 1966, 1970*

• Bronze medal (1): 1954

• ASEAN Football Championship

Fourth place /Semifinalist(2) : 2004, 2016

• Southeast Asian Games

• Gold medal (5): 1965*, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973

• Silver medal (3): 1961, 1993, 2007, 2015
• Bronze medal (2): 1975, 1977, 2011

• Pestabola Merdeka

• Winners (4): 1964, 1967*, 1971, 2006

• Runners-up (4): 1966, 1968, 1970, 2007

• Jakarta Anniversary Tournament

• Winners (4): 1971, 1973, 1974, 1975

• Runners-up (1) 1976

• Korea Cup (President's Cup)

• Winners (3): 1971*, 1972, 1973*

• Runners-up (1): 1975
• Third Place (1): 1974

• Myanmar Grand Royal Challenge Cup

• Winners (2) : 2006, 2008

• Philippine Peace Cup

• Winners (1) : 2014

• AYA Bank Cup

• Third Place (1) : 2016

*trophy shared