The Slovenia national football team (Slovene : Slovenska nogometna reprezentanca) represents the nation of Slovenia in international association football. The team is controlled by the Football Association of Slovenia (NZS), the nation's governing body for football, and is a member of both the European football federation, UEFA, and the world football association, FIFA.
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Prior to Slovenian independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in June 1991, the unofficial Slovenian national team played several friendly matches. [1] A year after gaining independence, on 3 July 1992, [2] Slovenia was admitted to FIFA and played its first officially recognised match on 3 June 1992, a friendly against Estonia in Tallinn. [3] In the game, ending in a 1–1 draw, Igor Benedejčič became the first goalscorer for Slovenia after equalizing in the second half. [4] Their first competitive match was a UEFA Euro 1996 qualifier against Italy in September 1994. [3] Slovenia have qualified for a major tournament four times, twice for the FIFA World Cup (2002 and 2010) and twice for the UEFA European Championship (2000 and 2024). [5] Slovenia is also one of the smallest countries by population to ever qualify for the World Cup. [6] [7] As of 17 November 2024, Slovenia have played a total of 301 official matches, winning 110, drawing 80 and losing 111. [3]
Since 1992, 238 players have represented the national team in official matches. [8] The most capped player is Boštjan Cesar, who has made 101 appearances between 2003 and 2018. [9] The most capped goalkeeper is Samir Handanović with 81 appearances between 2004 and 2015. [10] Zlatko Zahovič is the all-time top goalscorer with 35 goals in his international career, which spanned 13 years between 1992 and 2004. [11] The player with the most appearances as the team captain is Jan Oblak, who captained Slovenia in 50 matches. [12] Benjamin Šeško is the youngest player to appear for the national team; he was 18 years and 1 day old at the time of his debut in June 2021. [13]
