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Football in Mali has produced many well known and famous players. Mali as a nation is renowned for its passion for football. The Mali national football team is popularly known as Les Aigles, meaning 'The Eagles'. The football team is controlled and managed by Federation Malienne de Football (FMF). The Malian Soccer Foundation attained its FIFA affiliation in the year 1962. It is an irony that Mali National Football team has performed poorly in the World Cups. The team reached its highest FIFA ranking of 35 in March 2007 and steeped to an all time low of 117 in 2001.
The Mali National Football team has fared poorly in the World Cup. The team was even unable to qualify for the 2002 and 2006 World Cup. However in Africa Nations' Cup in 2002 and 2004, it ranked fourth. Again in 2006 it was not able to qualify. One of the greatest achievements of the Malian National Football team was to rank second in 1972 Africa Nations' Cup. They also qualified for the semi-finals of the FIFA World Youth Championship 1999 in Nigeria. This team in May 1975 experienced its biggest win when it defeated Mauritania 6-1. The biggest defeats were against Algeria in 1988 when the team had to succumb to 7 goals from Algeria. Kuwait defeated Mali 8-1 in September 1997.
In the Amilcar Cabral Cup it was 2 times champion in 1989 and 1997, and was 4 times runner up. The Head Coach of the National Football Team of Mali is Jean Francois Jodar. He was a former French footballer. The captain of the National Mali Football team is Mahamadou Diarra. He is a talented defensive midfielder who has represented his country in many international matches. Football in Mali has also contributed superb world class players like Salif Keita and Mamadou Keita. They have earned countless honors both at domestic and international levels.
Government is seriously adapting measures to increase the pool of talent of football in Mali. Women football is showing a marked improvement with the ever increasing number of women football players in Mali. With honest efforts, football in Mali is gradually coming to par to the international standards of this most popular game.
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