The Golden Era (1948–1970s)
Burma participated in 1954 Asian Games and won a bronze medal, standing behind Taiwan (gold) and South Korea (silver); this was the beginning of the golden era. On the other hand, the nation was not expected to contend for a medal in the Olympic-type Asian Games. In the meantime, this delegation became the first male Burmese team to win a continental medal. Against all odds, the Burma team bettered their 1954 effort by winning the gold medal in the Asian Games, which was held at Bangkok in the mid-1960s. In that tournament, Burma beat Iran in the gold-medal game. [4]
The 1966 Asian Games gold medal-winning squad established itself as one of the two best teams in the region as it finished as runner-up to Iran at the 1968 AFC Asian Cup after losing against Iran and drawing against Republic of China. Having won a silver medal in 1968, the men's soccer team had a strong performance in the early 1970s as it qualified to compete in the 1972 Summer Olympics, which was held at Munich (West Germany), upon being one of the three finalists in the Asian tournament. Despite only winning against Sudan with 2–0, the Burmese players won the Fair Play Award. The following year, the nation earned its fifth consecutive Southeast Asian Games gold medal in Singapore (Kuala Lumpur 1965, Bangkok 1967, Rangoon 1969, and Kuala Lumpur 1971). [5]
Three years before that, the national team wrote perhaps their most important chapter: they captured the continental title for the second time in a row, after the Burmese Olympic Committee sent footballers to Thailand for the 1970 Asian Games. Burma thus became the third football squad to win the Asian tournament twice. They were declared national heroes in Rangoon, the then capital of Burma, with their second consecutive gold medal in men's soccer. [4]
During this golden era, Burma produced many talented footballers. One among them is Suk Bahadur who is now considered as the greatest Burmese footballer of all time for his outstanding contribution to Burmese football. [4]
Over the following years, mainly due to political problems within the country, the national side's ability to defend its Asian title slowly faded away.
Decline and struggle (1970s–2010s)
In the later years, Burma were unable to achieve similar results like in the golden era, due to many factors. The collapse of whole Burmese football system during the rule of Ne Win and later, the junta, had a negative impact on Burmese football team. Lack of funding and poor infrastructure prevented many Burmese players to play abroad, thus leading to retirement. At the same time, the rise of Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand made Myanmar's golden era fade away.
Despite this, Myanmar did win 2 medals: a silver medal in the 1993 Southeast Asian Games, in a loss to Thailand, and a bronze in the 2004 AFF Championship.
Resurgence (2010–2019)
Myanmar's 2011 reforms had been a major point of turning Myanmar's football, which had declined since 1970s. During this era, a new wave of Burmese football had arrived with the change of Myanmar's political climate, after many years under junta's rule.
The arrival of the German manager Gerd Zeise has been the crucial turning point in Myanmar football. The Myanmar U20 team qualified to Myanmar's first ever FIFA tournament, the 2015 FIFA U20 World Cup after progressing to the semi-finals in the 2014 AFC U19 Championship as host. In the 2016 AFF Championship, Myanmar, once again as host, went to semi-finals, only losing to the eventual champions, Thailand.
Despite these successes, problems remain. Myanmar's football capability has been questioned after their disastrous 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification; while at the same time, many teams in Asia have developed after many years in the shadows. Once again, Myanmar failed to qualify for 2019 AFC Asian Cup, when they suffered a tremendous 1–5 loss to Kyrgyzstan. In an effort to prepare the team for the 2018 AFF Championship, on 13 October 2018, Myanmar played an unsuccessful friendly match against Bolivia at the Thuwunna Stadium, losing 3–0. Under Antoine Hey, Myanmar also had an unsuccessful 2018 AFF Championship, when the team was knocked out at the group stage, and Hey would resign after the tournament.
Myanmar began their 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification grouping with old rival Kyrgyzstan, as well as Tajikistan, Mongolia and especially powerhouse Japan. Under the guidance of the new manager Miodrag Radulović, Myanmar had a disastrous beginning when the team fell 0–1 to Mongolia away, 0–2 to Japan at home and especially a 0–7 away defeat to the Kyrgyz, causing the Montenegrin to be fired. After the defeat to Kyrgyzstan, old coach Antoine Hey returned, where he helped Myanmar to gain a shock home win 4–3 over Tajikistan before beating Mongolia 1–0 also at home to boost morale. [6]
Descent (2020–2022)
The COVID-19 pandemic in Myanmar and subsequent 2021 Myanmar coup d'état depleted greatly the national team when many key players refused to represent Myanmar in international football citing the junta's involvement. [7] As for the result, Myanmar brought to Japan with half of its squad members weren't regular starters, and suffered its worst defeat in modern era to the host 0–10, forcing Antoine Hey's men to win their 2 remaining matches against Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan while hoping for defeats from their 2 main opponents in the same time against Japan (and even a draw or a defeat against Mongolia for Kyrgyzstan) to be among the 4 best runners-up. [8] Having lost to Kyrgyzstan 1–8 the next match, Myanmar were officially eliminated from the World Cup and the top 2 spots in the group. Eventually, Myanmar confirmed its bottom place in the group, losing 0–4 to Tajikistan, and have to play the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification.
During the 2020 AFF Championship, Singapore defeated Myanmar 3–0, with Ikhsan Fandi scoring a brace. However in the next match, Myanmar bounced back from that defeat with Than Paing and Maung Maung Lwin both scoring a goal to earn a 2–0 victory over Timor-Leste which give the team the hope of qualifying to the semi-finals. However, those hopes were made impossible after Thailand won 4–0 against Myanmar which ended a disastrous tournament after failing to defeat the Philippines in the final matchday.
Myanmar were also drawn in the group of death in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification, being drawn with Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and also Singapore. The team failed to secure a points in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification being humiliated by Singapore 6–2, Tajikistan 4–0 and Kyrgyzstan 2–0.
The 2022 AFF Championship took place with Myanmar having friendly matches in Thailand as preparation fixtures. They won two matches against club teams, Chonburi and Samut Prakan. Despite this, they lost 6–0 to old rivals Thailand, although the opponents fielded a weaker squad. Myanmar then played their opening match against Malaysia, but although counter-attacking play was good, they lost 1–0 due to Faisal Halim's goal and a late penalty from Win Naing Tun being saved from Malaysia's Syihan Hazmi. In the next match, Myanmar played Singapore at the Jalan Besar Stadium, an artificial grass which cost them in addition to poor performances as the final result was 3–2 in Singapore's favour conceding the last goal from a goalkeeper punt kick which assisted Shawal Anuar to secure the 3 points for Singapore. However, Maung Maung Lwin did score two goals in this match: one being a composed right top corner finish while the other was a first-time volley. The team's chances of qualifying had been ruined, as they played Laos on home soil, going down 1–0 early on through Soukaphone Vongchiengkham but Kyaw Min Oo, who was having an excellent tournament scored a header, completely unmarked. Laos scored back to take the lead up to 2–1 however in the 90+6 minutes, Myanmar captain Maung Maung Lwin secured a point for Myanmar as the match ended at 2–2 which also mean that this draw confirmed the team's elimination from the tournament. They lost 3–0 against Vietnam in their final match and they failed to registered a single win in the group stage of the AFF Championship for the first time since the 2014 edition. On 31 January 2023, Antoine Hey resigned from his position as head coach. Despite the poor results, the team can take positives away from this tournament as the playing style was praised by many fans.
Glimpses of hope (2023–present)
In March 2023, Germany head coach Michael Feichtenbeiner was tasked to lead Myanmar with positive results. With the domestic league being more active compared to last year's competition, Myanmar fans had no reason not to be optimistic when they participated in the 2023 Tri-Nation Series tournament hosted by India. This tournament saw the big returns of Aung Thu and Nyein Chan Aung after boycotting call-ups over the coup earlier, which was seen as a surprise. Players such as Lwin Moe Aung, Hein Htet Aung and Win Naing Tun were also called up to the national squad. In the first match, the finishing cost Myanmar against a tough India side, losing 1–0 with a goal in first half stoppage time by Anirudh Thapa. In the second match against Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar midfielder Kyaw Min Oo blew a big leading chance with a penalty miss in the first half. Despite this miss, Myanmar continued to press and trouble the Kyrgyzstan defence and were eventually rewarded with a goal from Aung Thu in the 82' minute. However, they gave away a goal in the 90+6' minute from a corner kick. Despite it being a draw, this result showed the return of the winning spirit that Myanmar desperately needed during the last year. The Myanmar team had shown a significant improvement throughout the last 6 months, and it showed in the match against Kyrgyzstan.
In June 2023, Myanmar travelled to Dalian to face China and Macau in the international friendly window in which Myanmar played their first match against China but came out with a 4–0 defeat despite a strong showing in the first half. On 19 June 2023, Macau was Myanmar's next opponent and goals from Lwin Moe Aung and Maung Maung Lwin secured a 2–0 win, Myanmar's first win in over two years since their last win over Timor-Leste on 8 December 2021. In September 2023, Myanmar played both of their friendly match at home against Nepal which the first match resulted in a disappointing 0–0 draw, with Myanmar goalkeeper Kyaw Zin Phyo saving Anjan Bista's penalty. In the second match, the performance significantly improved and Myanmar won 1–0 to an 86' minute goal by striker Win Naing Tun. In October 2023, Myanmar played against Macau in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification first round match at home which see them thrashing Macau 5–1 at home on 12 October 2023. Myanmar failed to produce the same performance in the second leg however, as Macau put up a strong resistance to end the game in a disappointing goalless draw; still, due to having won 5–1 in the first leg, Myanmar advanced to the second round of the qualification, where Myanmar will have to face sterner oppositions in group B, which are Syria, North Korea and Asian hegemon Japan, which had impressed greatly in the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Amidst the backdrop of ongoing security crisis on home soil, notably with the kickstarting of the Operation 1027 that led to war and destruction in the country's borderlands and glimpse of war closer to Yangon, where Myanmar team chose to base themselves, the Burmese started their campaign with a predictable 5–0 thumping in the hands of Japan, the highest-ranked team in Asia at the time, before suffering an agonising 6–1 loss to North Korea on home soil, in which Win Naing Tun scored Myanmar's solitary goal. On 21 March 2024, Myanmar shockingly held Syria to a 1–1 draw after Soe Moe Kyaw scored the only goal for the team during the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification match, which was a surprise after Syria's decent performance in the 2023 AFC Asian Cup earlier. Unfortunately, Myanmar could not keep up with the tempo in the return leg, losing 7–0 to Syria in a match where the Burmese were reduced to ten men after Hein Phyo Win was sent off.
On September 9, 2024, the Myanmar Football Federation appointed former national team player and football legend Myo Hlaing Win as the head coach of the national team.
On 10 October 2024, Myanmar won 2–0 in a friendly against Sri Lanka.
As part of preparations for the AFF Mitsubishi Cup 2024, the Myanmar national team played two friendly against Singapore and Lebanon.Both matches ended in 3–2 defeats for Myanmar, with the games taking place on November 14 and November 19, respectively.
On 9 December, Myanmar played their first match of the 2024 ASEAN Championship at Thuwunna Stadium but lost unexpectedly to Indonesia. After the loss, they traveled to the Philippines to play on 12 December. That match ended in a draw. Although there was still hope to reach the semi-finals, the chances were very low. On December 18, Myanmar returned home to play against Laos in their third match. They needed a win to avoid finishing the tournament without a victory. In a dramatic game, Myanmar won 3–2, with Win Naing Tun scoring in the 87th and 90+3rd minutes to secure the win. Then, on 21 December, Myanmar played their final group match against Vietnam. Unfortunately, it ended in a heavy 5–0 lost thus Myanmar was knocked out of the tournament.
Myanmar had been missing success for a long time, so qualifying for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup was very important. They needed to finish first in their group in the third round of the 2027 AFC Asian Cup qualification. On 25 March 2025, they played their first match against Afghanistan and won 2–1 at home. Afghanistan scored first in the 14th minute through Omid Popalzay, but Myanmar came back with goals from Than Paing in the 28th minute and Maung Maung Lwin in the 75th minute. On 10 June, Myanmar played against Pakistan and won 1–0 at home with Than Paing scoring the only goal to secure the 3 points. However, Myanmar failed to qualify for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup in the end, after suffering two heavy losses to Syria 5–1 away and 3–0 home.
