East Timor national under-23 football team

The East Timor national Under-23 football team (Portuguese: Seleção Timorense de Futebol Sub-23) represents the East Timor (recognized as Timor-Leste) in international football competitions in the Olympic Games, Asian Games, Southeast Asian Games and any other under-23 international football tournaments. It is controlled by the Federação de Futebol de Timor-Leste, the governing body of football in the country. East Timor is currently one of the weakest teams in the world. They won their first match on 5 November 2011 against Brunei, scoring 2–1.

Timor-Leste

Nickname(s)	O Sol Nascente (The Rising Sun)
Association	Federação de Futebol de Timor-Leste
Confederation	AFC (Asia)
Sub-confederation	AFF (Southeast Asia)
Head coach	Vacant
Captain	Filomeno Junior
Most caps	Ramos Maxanches Nilo Soares (18)
Top scorer	Murilo de Almeida Henrique Cruz Mouzinho (3)
Home stadium	East Timor National Stadium
FIFA code	TLS
First colours Second colours
First international
Malaysia 3–0 Timor-Leste (Bangkok, Thailand; 30 August 2005)
Biggest win
Timor-Leste 7–1 Macau (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; 23 July 2017)
Biggest defeat
Malaysia 11–0 Timor-Leste (Vientiane, Laos; 2 December 2009)
Asian Games
Appearances	2 (first in 2014)
Best result	Group Stage (2014, 2018)
Southeast Asian Games
Appearances	8 (first in 2009)
Best result	Group Stage (8 times)
AFF U-23 Championship
Appearances	4 (first in 2005)
Best result	Third place (2022)

History

Football was firstly introduced during Portuguese Timor era where many local and the Portuguese colonial official played the sport for enjoyment. After the Portuguese leave the eastern part of the island of Timor, neighbouring Indonesia invaded and change their culture and identity. East Timor gained full independence in 2002 after more than 20 years of occupation which resulted in a long running battle against Jakarta-led forces. The Timor-Leste U-23 team was invited to the 2005 AFF U-23 Youth Championship without any success, which is the first time that the team played in an international tournament. In 2009, the team entered the first Southeast Asian Games. Once again, they lost every match, including a 0–11 loss to Malaysia. Timor-Leste had major improvements at the 2011 SEA Games, when they used overseas players of Timorese descent from Brazil and Australia. These players contributed a lot to their successful run; especially from Murilo de Almeida who managed to score three goals. The team finished third in their group by recording their first win in their history, finishing above Laos, Brunei and the Philippines and had a goal difference of –4, which was a big improvement compared to their previous participation where the team finished last in their group with no wins from four games, scoring only once and having a goal difference of –28.

Kits

Timor-Leste's traditional home kit includes a red shirt, black shorts and red or black socks. The away kits feature white or yellow shirts. At the 2009 SEA Games, their home kit resemble the one worn by the Belgium national team.

Kit evolution

Home Kit 2009–2010

Away Kit 2009–2010

Alternative Kit 2011

Stadium

• East Timor National Stadium (2002–present)

Competitive record

Olympic Games

Olympic Games record										Qualification record
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA		TQ	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
1992	Part of Indonesia									Part of Indonesia
1996
2000
2004	did not enter									did not enter
2008
2012
2016	did not qualify									2016 AFC U-23 Championship qualification	3	1	0	2	3	8
2020										2020 AFC U-23 Championship qualification	3	1	0	2	5	16
2024										2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification	3	1	0	2	5	10
2028	To be determined									To be determined
Total	—	0/8	–	–	–	–	–	–		AFC U-23 Asian Cup (From 2016)	9	3	0	6	13	34

Asian Games Record

(Under-23 Team since 2002)

Asian Games
Year	Result	Position	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
2002	did not enter
2006
2010
2014	Group stage	28th	3	0	0	3	2	13
2018		24th	3	0	0	3	3	15
2022	did not enter
Total	Group stage	2/5	6	0	0	6	5	28

AFC U-23 Asian Cup Record

AFC U-23 Championship										Qualification record
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
2013	did not qualify									5	1	0	4	5	9
2016										3	1	0	2	3	8
2018										3	1	1	1	7	5
2020										3	1	0	2	5	16
2022										3	1	1	1	3	8
2024	did not qualify									3	1	0	2	5	10
2026	To be determined									To be determined
Total	–	0/7	0	0	0	0	0	0		20	6	2	12	28	56

SEA Games Record

(Under-23 Team since 2001)

Southeast Asian Games
Year	Result	Position	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
2005	Did not enter
2007
2009	Group stage	9th	4	0	0	4	1	28
2011		6th	5	2	0	3	4	8
2013		7th	4	1	1	2	5	8
2015		9th	5	1	0	4	4	10
2017		9th	5	1	0	4	2	8
2019		10th	4	0	0	4	2	18
2021		10th	4	0	0	4	3	13
2023		7th	4	1	0	3	3	8
Total	Group stage	8/10	35	6	1	28	24	101

AFF U-23 Youth Championship record

AFF U-23 Youth Championship
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D	L	GF	GA
2005	Group stage	8th	3	0	0	3	1	14
2019		6th	3	1	0	2	1	5
2022	Third place	3rd	4	2	2	0	7	3
2023	Group stage	9th	2	0	0	2	1	4
Total	Third Place	4/4	12	3	2	7	10	26

Coaching staff

Position	Name
Head coach	Vacant
Assistant coach	Vacant
Goalkeeper coach	Vacant
Physiotherapist	Vacant
Media officer	Vacant
Administrator	Vacant
Official	Vacant
Kitman	Vacant

Players

Current squad

• The following players were selected for the 2021 SEA Games.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Club
1	1GK	Junildo Pereira	(2003-06-04) 4 June 2003	Assalam
2	2DF	Nelson Viegas	(1999-12-24) 24 December 1999	Boavista Timor Leste
3	2DF	Orcelio	(2001-04-30) 30 April 2001	Karketu Dili
4	2DF	Jaimito Soares	(2003-06-10) 10 June 2003	Karketu Dili
5	2DF	Tomas Sarmento	(2000-08-24) 24 August 2000	Ponta Leste
6	3MF	Jhon Firth	(2002-07-17) 17 July 2002	SLB Laulara
7	3MF	Elias Mesquita	(2002-03-27) 27 March 2002	Lalenok United
8	3MF	Dom Lucas Braz	(2001-03-14) 14 March 2001	Assalam
9	4FW	Anizo Correia	(2003-05-23) 23 May 2003	Ponta Leste
10	4FW	Mouzinho	(2002-02-26) 26 February 2002	SLB Laulara
11	4FW	Alexandro Kefi	(2004-12-20) 20 December 2004	SLB Laulara
12	2DF	Yohanes Gusmão	(2000-01-10) 10 January 2000	Lalenok United
13	2DF	Gumario	(2001-10-08) 8 October 2001	Lalenok United
14	3MF	Cristevão	(2004-01-16) 16 January 2004	SLB Laulara
15	3MF	Armindo de AlmeidaOA	(1998-04-18) 18 April 1998	Ponta Leste
16	2DF	João Halle	(2003-03-02) 2 March 2003	SLB Laulara
17	4FW	Zenivio	(2005-04-22) 22 April 2005	SLB Laulara
18	2DF	Filomeno Junior (captain)	(2000-08-05) 5 August 2000	SLB Laulara
19	3MF	Natalino da Costa	(2003-08-03) 3 August 2003	Karketu Dili
20	1GK	Georgino Mendonça	(2002-03-16) 16 March 2002	SLB Laulara

Recent results

  Win   Draw   Loss

Singapore v Timor-Leste

25 October 2021 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification	Singapore	2–2	Timor-Leste	Singapore
	Glenn Kweh 34' Jordan Emaviwe 90+5' Jacob Mahler	[1] [2]	Elias Mesquita 38' Paulo Gali 41'  44'	Stadium: Jalan Besar Stadium Attendance: 943 Referee: Majed Al Shamrani (Saudi Arabia)

Timor-Leste v South Korea

28 October 2021 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification	Timor-Leste	0–6	South Korea	Singapore
17:00 UTC+8		Report	Park Jeong-in 29', 32', 49' Choi Jun 32' Oh Hyun-gyu 82' Kim Se-yun 87'	Stadium: Jalan Besar Stadium Attendance: 166 Referee: Ngô Duy Lân (Vietnam)

Timor-Leste v Philippines

31 October 2021 (2021-10-31) 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification	Timor-Leste	1–0	Philippines	Singapore
17:00 (UTC+08:00)	Zenivio 89'	Report		Stadium: Jalan Besar Stadium Attendance: 251 Referee: Yudai Yamamoto (Japan)

Malaysia v Timor-Leste

29 April 2022 (2022-04-29) Friendly1	Malaysia	1–2	Timor-Leste	Selangor, Malaysia
20:15 UTC+8	Faiz Amer Runnziar 66'		Elias João Da Costa 51' Jhon Frith Ornai 77'	Stadium: UiTM Stadium

31st Southeast Asian Games

Philippines v Timor-Leste

6 May 2022 (2022-05-06)	Philippines	4–0	Timor-Leste	Việt Trì Stadium, Phú Thọ
16:00 (UTC+7:00)	Rontini 11' Chung 56' Bedic 78' Kekkonen 81'	Report

Timor-Leste v Myanmar

8 May 2022 (2022-05-08)	Timor-Leste	2–3	Myanmar	Việt Trì Stadium, Phú Thọ
19:00 (UTC+7:00)	Mouzinho 52' Soares 64'	Report	Win Naing Tun 38' Htet Phyo Wai 41' Aung Wanna Soe 90+5'

Indonesia v Timor-Leste

13 May 2022 (2022-05-13)	Indonesia	4–1	Timor-Leste	Việt Trì Stadium, Phú Thọ
16:00 (UTC+7:00)	Egy 16' Witan 52', 77' Fachruddin		Mouzinho 69'

Timor-Leste v Vietnam

15 May 2022 (2022-05-15)	Timor-Leste	0–2	Vietnam	Việt Trì Stadium, Phú Thọ
19:00 (UTC+7:00)

List of coaches

Coach	Coaching period	Pld	W	D	L	Achievements
José Luís	2005	3	0	0	3	2005 AFF U-23 Youth Championship – Round 1 (First Time)
Manuel da Costa Soares	2009–2010	4	0	0	4	2009 Southeast Asian Games – Round 1 (First Time)
Antonio Carlos Vieira	2011–2012	5	2	0	3	2011 Southeast Asian Games – First Win with Brunei
Norio Tsukitate	2012	5	1	0	4	2013 AFC U-22 Championship qualification – Did not qualify
Emerson Alcântara	2013–2014	6	2	2	2	2013 Southeast Asian Games – First Draw with Indonesia
Takuma Koga	2014	3	0	0	3	2014 Asian Games – Round 1 (First Time)
Fábio Magrão	2015–2016	8	2	0	6	2016 AFC U-23 Championship qualification – Did not qualify 2015 Southeast Asian Games – Round 1
Kim Shin-hwan	2017–2018	3	1	1	1	2018 AFC U-23 Championship qualification – Did not qualify
Norio Tsukitate	2018–2019	3	0	0	3	2018 Asian Games – Group stage

External links

• Profile at FIFA.com
• Profile at the-AFC.com
• Profile at AFF Site