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Many football teams from around the world have another name by which they are more well known. These are not all official names, and some national teams have more than one nickname.

I have tried to find the most commonly used nickname, and included others if known. As you can see, many of these nicknames are derived from the color of their playing strip or country flag, or an animal associated with the country.

If you have any corrections or additions, please let me know.

See also our list of female national football team names.

List of National Teams

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Related Pages

• See the list of women's national team nicknames
• Poll of your favorite National Team nickname from the World Cup 2010.
• About sporting team nicknames from around the world
• Top-10 List of Funny National Team Names
• About Soccer Teams and Leagues
• Soccer Lists
• Rugby League and Rugby Union Team Names.

Old Comments

Commenting is closed on this page, though you can read some previous comments below which may answer some of your questions.

• Regarding the Scottish national team's nickname, while The Tartan Terriers is the most common nickname in most parts of the country, the team were also sometimes referred to as "The Tartan Beasts" in the town where I was born. And I've heard the term used by other Scots too. It's generally more common here to talk about The Tartan Army, rather than assigning a nickname to the team itself, but when we do, I've heard both "terriers" and "beasts" being used. (Rupert Schuper, Nov 2020)
• For Iranian team, Team Mehdi is incorrect. Also the correct unofficial name would be Shiran-e Pars.
  Source: I'm Iranian. Ilia (2014)
• note the nickname Sbornaya for Russia is foreign. In Russian it's not a nickname but just a noun (originally an adjective) meaning 'national team' or 'selected team', i.e. the word is applied to any national/selected team in any sport. Yury Gomon (2017)
  
  • The above is also true of "natsionalnaya sbornaya" for Belarus (it's not even in Belorussian, it's in Russian) and probably for all the other listed nicknames that just mean "the national team" and I don't think these names are used outside the respective countries so I'd remove them all if I were in your place. Yury Gomon (2018)
• Lucas Silveira Santos (2016)
  Fiji's nickname is Bula Boys, which comes from Bula, a Fijian greeting (equivalent to "Hello")
  Tahiti's nickname is not "L'Equipe du Fenua", but "Toa Aito", which in Tahitian means "The Steel Warriors"
• Lucas Silveira Santos (2016)
  actually, the Fiji football national team has also another nickname, which is "Bula Boys" (Bula is a fijian greeting)
• Sudardi (2016)
  Yes, another nickname for Indonesian Football Team is "Garuda". Garuda is the Hindu name for the constellation Aquila and the Brahminy kite and Phoenix are considered to be the contemporary representations of Garuda. Indonesia adopts a more stylistic approach to the Garuda's depiction as its national symbol, where it depicts an eagle (being much larger than a kite).
• Rodrigo (2016)
  Uruguay played Indonesia in october 8th of 2010. As a uruguayan I was amazed and honored to see indonesians so happy and respectful after their 7-1 defeat that day. It made me realize many things about the sport ethics of other football confederations and the idiosyncrasy of these wonderful indonesian people. Anyway when I entered youtube to relive the experience by rewatching the goals I also noticed something else, they kept posting something about 'garuda' like 'tegakkan kepala mu garuda!' and stuff like that. I already knew garuda was a giant mythical bird but also the national emblem of Indonesia, so I think their nickname is ''the team of the great garuda'' or something along those lines.
• Azza (2016)
  "Azkal" has nothing to do with mixed breed of people!! It's a street dog! So how the hell does it have to do with people let alone Filipino-Americans/Euros etc? As has been said, it may be accepted locally, but for outsiders, they wonder why the hell would anyone give their national team an idiotic nickname such as street dogs! And then it becomes a big joke!! If you actually think it's something to be proud of, then you're messed in the head!
• Angel (2016)
  The Puerto Rican National Football Team has one and only one nickname, and that is "El Huracán Azul" which is Spanish for "The Blue Hurricane". All of the nicknames listed are nicknames for teams of other Puerto Rican sports and do not apply to the national football team. Thanks for the list!
• Rob Admin Angel (2016)
  Thanks for the info. The other names have been removed: Vaqueros meaning 'Cowboys', Coqui Warriors (the coqui being a small frog found on the island), la Monoestrellada ("the Lone Stars" in Spanish), and los Boriqcuas (a slang term for Puerto Ricans).
• Mike (2016)
  The name 'Azkals' for the Philippines team has actually been a long standing joke from a few years ago when 'people ('supposed fans') were trying to come up with a nickname. A lot Filipinos thrive on cheap thrills and jokes and this name eventually spread (very sad and pathetic), that's why you found a lot of sources which would give 'Azkals' as a supposed nickname for the Philippines
• Zxcvb4321 mike (2016)
  It (azkals) may be accepted domestically by most, but whatever by others? What about outsiders looking in? Ya, it's one big joke!!
• Dan mike (2016)
  Azkals means mixed breed of Filipino. Filipino-Americans, Filipino-Europeans ... Its a widely accepted monicker. It also means its a tough dogs.
• Einsh mike (2016)
  Sad and pathetic? i don't think so. Askals (stray dogs) are known to be survivors and I guess it's just an appropriate nickname for the Philippine National Football Team. By the way, it's an accepted nickname all over the Philippines today!
• Max (2016)
  Italian teams are all called Azurri, which is the plural of Azurro (Blue). Therefore Azurri means "The Blues". It's not light blue as you referred to. The actual color is Savoy (Savoia) Blue.
• This color is chosen by all Italian teams because it was the official color of the Royal House of Savoy (Savoia), which unified all the different small countries and factions that existed in the region into one unified country called Italia.
• Muazzam (2016)
  For Malaysian team, we didn't called them 'Sang Harimau' because its mean 'The Tiger'. They are known as 'Harimau Malaysia' it's mean 'The Malaysian Tiger'. However, before this we called them 'Harimau Malaya'. Also have a same meaning with 'Harimau Malaysia'. 'Harimau Malaysia' are change from 'Harimau Malaya' since 2016.
• Muazzam (2016)
  For Malaysian, we not called 'Sang Harimau' but we called them 'Harimau Malaysia' it's mean 'Malaysian Tigers'.
• Noulispa1983 (2016)
  Also, about the Greek National Team, the nickname ''To Peiratiko'' is not the official, this nickname just came after the winning of the Euro 2004 and it is not even concidered as nickname. The official is ''i galanolefki'', meaning the ''sky blue and white team''
  , just as the cyprian nickname. * I am Greek *
• Marcel20 (2015)
  First of all, thank you for this very insightful, comprehensive overview, compliments !
• One important thing regarding the Belgian team 'De Rode Duivels': Flemish is not a language. Just like
  American or Australian aren't languages, nor Austrian or Mexican. The
  official languages in Belgium are Dutch (7.5 million speakers), French
  (3.5 million people) and (perhaps not known to everyone) German (a small minority of 75,000 people in the so-called East Cantons that got
  annexed from Germany after World War I).
• The official language in Flanders ('Vlaanderen') is, of course, exclusively, Dutch ('Nederlands'). Flemish is the adjective relating to Flanders, its people, and its culture. For instance, I am Flemish (from the city of Antwerp) and I speak Dutch.
• Sergio (2015)
  good to know tha you call the spanish team for "la furia roja" and the chilean for "la roja". The spanish media started to call its national team for "la roja" after world cup 2010. But the chilean team has always been called as "la roja" long time ago, from the 60:s or 70:s The game between Chile vs spain in World Cup 2014 was about the nickname too and we, chileans won that game, for the points and for the honor. THATS WHY THE CHILEAN SUPPORTERS SANG THE CHILEAN ANTHEAM SO LOUD. BECAUSE THIS WAS MATH WAS NOT ONLY FOR THE POINTS, ITS WAS FOR THE SHIRT,THE COLORS !!!!
• Joker (2014)
  "Die Mannschaft" is not the nickname for the german team in Germany, not even "The Eagles / Die Adler". "Die Mannschaft" is used in foreign countries and it's not a proper name for the german team. In Germany we call it "Die Nationalmannschaft (the national team), die Nationalelf (the national eleven), DFB-Team or just simply Deutschland. If you would ask some German for example: Weißt Du, wann die Mannschaft spielt? (Do you know when the team is playing? Hat die Mannschaft gewonnen? (Has the team won?) Wie findest du die Mannschaft? (What do you think about the team?) Definitely the answer will be: Which team? But in English you can say "Die Mannschaft", because there it became a proper name. But don't tell anyone that the Germans call it the same way.
• Jorge Fernandes (2014)
  About the Portugal and the "Quinas", isn't what you say, because the five "Quinas" represents the five wounds of Jesus christ. If you see our national flag, you will see the five "Quinas" in the center and seven castles (yellow), and that seven castles are what you say, conquer to the moors by our first king, D. Afonso Henriques.
• Guest (2014)
  For the French team the translation "The Blues" is ambiguous (could be singluar of "the blues", instead of plural of "the blue"). I would translate it as "The Blue Ones" (sounds better anyway).
• Paul Dixon (2014)
  The Slovenian team does have a nickname. It's Fantje (meaning The Boys in Slovenian).
• Dino Fidalgo (2013)
  The Portuguese "aka" is correct. However the meaning of the word "QUINAS" is a 5 sided Polyhedron...representing the "Forts" (Castles) Conquered from the Moors, in the "Foundation" of Portugal in 1143. ( One of the Oldest Kingdom Country in Western Europe. Also the "QUINAS" Is present in the Portuguese Relublican Nafional FLAG ( The 5 White-on-Blue DOTS=Quinas). :-))
• Rob Admin Dino Fidalgo (2013)
  Thanks, I have added some of that to the table. So what is the translation of the nickname - Team of Forts?
• Nebula (2013)
  There is no country Macedonia! Her name is F.Y.R.O.M.
• Rob Admin nebula (2013)
  I have corrected it to "Macedonia (Republic of)". There probably was not much confusion, as it is the only region that is called Macedonia which has their own football team.
• Nebula Rob (2013)
  Thanks for your response! The truth is that you can seem strange or funny, but this country now is called FYROM and who once called Skopje, tries to steal the history of another country, that of Greece, where really lies the region of Macedonia with a history of over 3500 years! Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience!
• Myth (2013)
  The (Philippine) "Azkals" is a portmanteau - a word made up of two combined words. Asong Kalye literally means Street Dog or Stray Dog. The "As" in Asong and "Kal" in Kalye formed the Azkals. The spelling is interchangeable (Azkals or Askals) but the "formal" spelling is with the letter 'z.' This nickname was chosen because the Philippine National Team used to be the whipping team in Asia - a sport that took a backseat to basketball, consequently never taken seriously by Filipinos. But when the Philippines started winning against (higher ranked) teams that normally routed them, the team's players acquired the characteristics similar to that of stray dogs which are; resilient, tough, strong, feisty, enduring, steadfast, resolute, tenacious, persevering and dangerous. The Azkals never gave up thus overcoming huge odds to defeat more experienced, more skilled and more talented teams. It's true that the Azkal nickname doesn't sound as glamorous as other national team nicknames but that's what makes it fun, creative and clever. After all, football fans want to have fun while being creative and clever. In short, when you're a stray dog, you do everything you can to survive and that's what the Azkals are doing after decades of being embarrassed by football-mad Asian countries.
• Joose81 (2013)
  US Mens National Team more commonly referred to as "the Yanks"
• Rob Admin Joose81 (2013)
  Thanks. Another name that is used is Team USA. I have added these names to the table. There does not appear to be an official name.
• Brilliant! At least, you've aided me differentiate between the selecao of brazil and that of Portugal. Kudos (from Tosyn~Tekena, Mar 2013)
• What a name for Africa football teams are they all animals. hahahahahahahahaha. (from Uduojie joel., Feb 2013)
• Wow! I'm indeed fascinated about the names especially in Africa (from Wendy, Feb 2013)
• I am not sure about the translation of the Cape Verde nickname. In my opinion, it should be "Blue Sharks", not "Black Sharks" - (ed. Fixed!) Also, the Venezuelan nickname means "the Red Wine" referring to the crimson color of the jersey. Last, Italian "Azzurri" is not "the Blues", like the French team, but rather "the Azures" or "the Light Blues". Indeed, the color of their respective jerseys is clearly different. Besides, you did an awesome job. Congratulations. (from Mario (Italy), Jan 2013)
• The Mexico national team also uses the alternative nickname of "Los Aztecas". It is less common a nickname then El Tri or Tricolores, but I have heard it used from time to time. (from George Perez, March 2012)