Since the arrival of Vasco da Gama in 1498, the Portuguese increasingly strengthened their presence in the country until Mozambique's independence from Portugal in 1975, when the country became a Portuguese colony. To this day, therefore, football in Mozambique is characterized by its Portuguese origins and relationships, for example by partly former, partly still current affiliate associations of the Portuguese clubs Sporting CP and Benfica. Also, many Mozambican footballers play in Portugal. The most famous example might be Eusébio.[2] He began his footballing career in 1957 at Clube de Desportos do Maxaquene, which was founded on May 20, 1920 in the capital of Mozambique as Sporting CP's sixth branch club.[3] From 1960 Eusébio then played for Benfica, where he was eleven times Portuguese champion and 1962 European Champions Cup (now the UEFA Champions League) won.[4] He became European Footballer of the Year in 1965 and was the top scorer of the 1966 World Cup.[5]
Already since 1922 regular championships in Mozambique were played out, at first only as a district championship of Lourenço Marques (today Maputo), from 1956 as the national championship of the Portuguese overseas province of Mozambique.
In 1975, Mozambique became independent from Portugal, and in 1976 the National Football Association of the Republic of Mozambique, the Mozambican Football Federation was founded. Since then, FMF has been directing football leagues in the country and is responsible for the national football teams.
Domestic football
Since 1976, FMF has organized the country's top division, the Campeonato Moçambicano de Futebol, better known as Moçambola. Record Champions are Clube Ferroviário de Maputo (founded in 1924) and CD Costa do Sol (founded in 1924), each with nine titles. In 2014, for the fourth time in five years, the club Muçulmana became national champion.
The Moçambola's three last-placed clubs are relegated to the second division, the single-track Segunda Divisão with 21 clubs. Under this second league follow the eleven supreme leagues of the football associations of the eleven Mozambican provinces.
The national trophy of the FMF, the Taça de Moçambique, has been played since 1978. The first winner was CD Maxaquene, who have won the cup nine times (as of December 2014). However, CD Costa do Sol have won the cup the most, with 11 trophies. In 2013 and 2014, Clube Ferroviário da Beira won the trophy.
The Mozambican national football team has participated in FIFA tournaments since the 1980 FIFA World Cup finals. So far they have not qualified for a World Cup.
Mozambique has already participated in the Africa Cup of Nations four times, in 1986, 1996, 1998 and 2010. They were eliminated in all four tournaments in the preliminary round.
At the Nations Cup of Southern Africa, the COSAFA Cup, Mozambique have participated in every edition so far, joint hosting in 2007. They have twice reached the final, in 2008 and in 2015.
Mozambique also took part in every edition of the football tournaments in the framework of the Jogos da Lusofonia, the "Lusofonia Games", and were meant to host in 2017 prior to cancellation.
In December 2014, Mozambique finished 98th in the FIFA World Ranking. The highest FIFA placement reached by the national team was in November 1997 in 66th place, the worst in July 2005 in 134th place. Chiquinho Conde is contracted to be head coach of the Mozambique national team until 2026.
In December 2014, Mozambique finished 133rd in the FIFA Women's World Ranking.
Felice Lemos caused quite a stir in 2013. She was known as the first female coach of a male football team, when she took over the first team of the club Zixaxa in the capital Maputo. She reported a lot of encouragement from the players and the fans, but she also experienced misogynist discrimination on the part of her coaching colleagues.[6]
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