Myanmar national football team

Burma participated in 1954 Asian Games and won a bronze medal, standing behind Taiwan (gold) and South Korea (silver); this was the beginning of the golden era. 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. Against all odds, the Burma team bettered their 1954 effort by winning the gold medal in the Asian Games, which was 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. Having won a silver medal in 1968, the men's soccer team had a strong performance in the early 1970s as it qualified to compete in the 1972 Summer Olympics, which was held at Munich (West Germany), upon being one of the three finalists in the Asian tournament. Despite onlying winning against Sudan with 2–0, the Burmese players won the Fair Play Award. The following year, the nation earned its fifth consecutive Southeast Asian Games gold medal at Singapore City (Kuala Lumpur 1965, Bangkok 1967, Rangoon 1969, and Kuala Lumpur 1971).

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 football squad to win the Asian tournament twice. 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 time for his outstanding contribution to Burmese football.

Over the following years, mainly due to political problems within the country, the national side's ability to defend its Asian title slowly faded away.

In the later years, Burma were unable to achieve similar results like in the golden era, due to many factors. The collapse of whole Burmese football system during the rule of Ne Win and later, the junta, had a negative impact on Burmese football team. Lack of funding and poor infrastructure prevented many Burmese players to play abroad, thus leading to retirement. At the same time, the rise of Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines and especially Vietnam and the Thailand made Myanmar's golden era fade away.

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 qualified 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.

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 at 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 after.

Myanmar began their 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification grouping with old rival Kyrgyzstan, as well as Tajikistan, Mongolia and especially powerhouse Japan. Under the guidance of the new manager Miodrag Radulović, Myanmar had a disastrous beginning when the team fell 0–1 to Mongolia away, 0–2 to Japan at home and especially a 0–7 away defeat to the Kyrgyz, causing the Montenegrin to be fired. After the defeat to Kyrgyzstan, old coach Antoine Hey returned, where he helped Myanmar to gain a shock home win 4–3 over Tajikistan before beating Mongolia 1–0 also at home to boost morale. However, the COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar and subsequent Myanmar protests depleted greatly the national team when many key players refused to represent Myanmar in international football citing the junta's involvement.[4] As for the result, Myanmar brought to Japan with half of its squad members weren't regular starters, and suffered its worst defeat in modern era to the host 0–10, forcing Antoine Hey's men to win their 2 remaining matches against Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan while hoping for defeats from their 2 main opponents in the same time against Japan (and even a draw or a defeat against Mongolia for Kyrgyzstan) to be among the 4 best runners-up.[5] Having lost to Kyrgyzstan 1–8 the next match, Myanmar were officially eliminated from the World Cup and the top 2 spots in the group. Eventually, Myanmar confirmed its bottom place in the group, losing 0–4 to Tajikistan, and have to play the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification.

During the AFF Suzuki Cup, Singapore defeated Myanmar 3-0, with Ikhsan Fandi scoring a brace. Myanmar bounced back from that defeat with Than Paing and Maung Maung Lwin scored a goal each to give them hope of qualifying to the semi-finals. However, those hopes were made impossible after Thailand won 4-0 against Myanmar. Myanmar ended a disastrous tournament after failing to defeat the Philippines in the final matchday. The team were also drawn in the Group of Death in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification, with World Cup Qualifying group members Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The team are also to play against AFF Suzuki Cup group members Singapore.

Name	Period	Matches	Wins	Draws	Losses	Win %	Honours
Marko Valok	1959–?
Mikhail Bozenenkov (ru)	1961–1963
Sein Hlaing	1964–1979						Asian Games Champions (1966, 1970) Southeast Asian Games Champions (1965, 1967, 1969, 1971, 1973) Merdeka Cup Champions (1964, 1967, 1971)
Bert Trautmann	1972–1974						1972 President's Cup Football Tournament Champions
Ger Blok	1993–1996[8]
Ratomir Dujković	1996–1997
David Booth	2000–2003
Ivan Venkov Kolev	Nov 2004 – 2005						2004 Tiger Cup Semi-finalists
Sann Win	2006–2007						2006 Merdeka Tournament Champions 2007 Merdeka Tournament Runners-up
Marcos Falopa	Apr 2007 – Dec 2008[9]
Tim Myint Aung	Apr 2009 – Oct 2009
Drago Mamić	Oct 2009 – Feb 2010
Tin Myint Aung	Feb 2010 – Dec 2010	5	2	0	3	040.00
Milan Živadinović	Jan 2011 – Jul 2011	7	0	2	5	000.00
Sann Win*	Jul 2011	5	1	1	3	020.00
Park Sung-Hwa	Dec 2011 – Dec 2013	13	5	4	4	038.46
Sann Win*	Sep 2013	1	0	1	0	000.00
Radojko Avramovic	Feb 2014 – Oct 2015	22	7	4	11	031.82	2014 Philippine Peace Cup Champions
Tin Myint Aung*	Aug 2017	1	1	0	0	100.00
Gerd Zeise	Oct 2015 – March 2018	24	7	6	11	029.17	2016 AFF Championship Semi-final
Zaw Win Tun*	March 2018	1	1	0	0	100.00
Antoine Hey	16 May 2018 – 13 December 2018[10]	8	2	1	5	025.00
Myo Min Tun*	March 2019	2	0	1	1	000.00
Miodrag Radulović	20 April 2019 – 20 October 2019[11]	5	1	0	4	020.00
Antoine Hey	21 October 2019[12] – present	6	3	0	3	050.00

* As caretaker

The following 21 players were called up for the 2020 AFF Championship.[13]

Caps and goals updated as of 18 December 2021, after the match against  Philippines.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	Pyae Phyo Aung	(1991-08-07) 7 August 1991	1	0	Unattached
18	1GK	Myo Min Latt	(1995-02-20) 20 February 1995	7	0	Shan United
24	1GK	Pyae Phyo Thu	(2002-10-21) 21 October 2002	1	0	Unattached
2	2DF	Nyein Chan	(1991-06-02) 2 June 1991	7	0	Shan United
3	2DF	Zaw Ye Tun	(1994-06-28) 28 June 1994	10	0	Yadanarbon
4	2DF	David Htan	(1988-05-13) 13 May 1988	69	4	Shan United
5	2DF	Win Moe Kyaw	(1996-10-09) 9 October 1996	10	0	Hanthawaddy United
17	2DF	Hein Phyo Win	(1998-09-19) 19 September 1998	4	0	Shan United
22	2DF	Aung Naing Win	(1997-06-01) 1 June 1997	1	0	Ayeyawady United
25	2DF	Lar Din Maw Yar	(1995-08-06) 6 August 1995	3	0	Hanthawaddy United
27	2DF	Aung Wunna Soe	(2000-04-19) 19 April 2000	0	0	Yadanarbon
6	3MF	Hlaing Bo Bo	(1996-07-08) 8 July 1996	38	6	Yadanarbon
7	3MF	Lwin Moe Aung	(1999-12-10) 10 December 1999	19	0	Yangon United
8	3MF	Maung Maung Win	(1990-05-08) 8 May 1990	9	0	Yangon United
10	3MF	Yan Naing Oo	(1996-03-31) 31 March 1996	29	1	Yangon United
11	3MF	Maung Maung Lwin	(1995-06-18) 18 June 1995	44	6	Lamphun Warriors
14	3MF	Htet Phyo Wai	(2000-01-21) 21 January 2000	13	3	Shan United
16	3MF	Myat Kaung Khant	(2000-07-15) 15 July 2000	6	1	Yadanarbon
19	3MF	Nay Moe Naing	(1997-12-13) 13 December 1997	0	0	Hanthawaddy United
20	3MF	Suan Lam Mang	(1994-07-28) 28 July 1994	33	6	Navy
30	3MF	Hein Htet Aung	(2001-10-05) 5 October 2001	4	0	Selangor
9	4FW	Than Paing	(1996-12-06) 6 December 1996	28	1	Shan United
12	4FW	Win Naing Tun	(2000-05-03) 3 May 2000	6	0	Yangon United
13	4FW	Aung Kaung Mann	(1998-02-18) 18 February 1998	4	0	Udon Thani
21	4FW	Kaung Htet Soe	(1997-09-01) 1 September 1997	0	0	Yangon United

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

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	San Set Naing	(1997-11-04) 4 November 1997	4	0	Yangon United	v.  Tajikistan, 11 June 2021
DF	Soe Moe Kyaw	(1999-03-23) 23 March 1999	13	0	Yangon United	v.  Tajikistan, 11 June 2021
DF	Thein Than Win	(1991-05-25) 25 May 1991	30	0	Unattached	v.  Tajikistan, 11 June 2021
DF	Ye Yint Aung	(1998-02-26) 26 February 1998	0	0	Hanthawaddy United	v.  Tajikistan, 11 June 2021
MF	Tin Win Aung	(1992-04-14) 14 April 1992	22	1	Unattached	v.  Tajikistan, 11 June 2021
MF	Pyae Moe	(1992-10-15) 15 October 1992	0	0	Yangon United	v.  Tajikistan, 11 June 2021
MF	Nyein Chan Aung	(1996-08-18) 18 August 1996	8	1	Yangon United	v.  Tajikistan, 11 June 2021
FW	Than Htet Aung	(1992-06-05) 5 June 1992	11	1	Ayeyawady United	v.  Tajikistan, 11 June 2021
INJ Withdrew due to injury PRE Preliminary squad RET Retired from the national team SUS Serving suspension WD Player withdrew from the squad due to non-injury issue.

FIFA World Cup record									FIFA World Cup qualification record
Year	Round	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1930 to 1938	Part of  United Kingdom								Part of  United Kingdom
1950	Withdrew								Withdrew from qualification
1954 to 1990	Did not enter								Did not enter
1994	Withdrew								Withdrew from qualification
1998	Did not enter								Did not enter
2002	Withdrew								Withdrew from qualification
2006	Banned								Banned
2010	Did not qualify								2	0	0	2	0	11
2014									4	1	0	3	2	6
2018									8	2	2	4	9	21
2022									8	2	0	6	6	35
2026	To be determined								To be determined
Total	0/22	–	–	–	–	–	–		22	5	2	15	17	73

• Banned in 2006 for withdrawing from qualification in 2002.
• Initially banned from 2018 for crowd trouble during a 2014 World Cup qualifying match against Oman but later overturned to matches to be played on neutral soil.[14][15]

• 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