Colonial-era beginnings
Association football reached Nigeria through British colonial administration, schools and the military, and the earliest international fixture on record is a 1938 match against the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), played in Lagos S1. The national side did not take shape as a formal touring team until 1949, when the Nigeria Football Association's Selection Committee — the NFA had itself been formally launched on 21 August 1945 to administer the game under colonial rule — named a 17-man squad (an 18th player joined five days later) to undertake a goodwill tour of the United Kingdom that August S2S4. Travelling from Lagos to Southampton aboard the steamship MV Apapa, the side was initially billed as the "UK Tourists" and played nine matches against English amateur clubs, finishing with two wins, two draws and five losses, a modest record attributed partly to players' unfamiliarity with wearing boots S1S2. On the return leg the team played Sierra Leone in Freetown wearing scarlet jerseys, earning the nickname "Red Devils," the name it carried for the remainder of the colonial period S1
Independence and the Green Eagles
Nigeria's independence on 1 October 1960 brought a change of footballing identity as well as flag: the team was renamed the Green Eagles, after the green of the national flag and the eagle on the national coat of arms, and Nigeria joined FIFA that same year, having already joined the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in 1959 S1S4. Two of the 1949 touring squad, striker Teslim "Thunder" Balogun and Titus Okere, went on to become the first Nigerians to sign for English clubs, part of a wider pattern of Nigerian players moving to European football that would recur throughout the team's history S1. As the Green Eagles, the national team became a fixture of early Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, finishing third at both the 1976 and 1978 editions before Nigeria was awarded the right to host the competition itself in 1980 S5
1980: the first continental title
Nigeria's first Africa Cup of Nations title came on home soil. Hosting the 12th edition of the tournament from 8 to 22 March 1980 across Lagos and Ibadan, the Green Eagles beat Algeria 3–0 in the final at the National Stadium, Surulere, in front of roughly 85,000 spectators, with Segun Odegbami scoring twice and Muda Lawal adding a third, and captain Christian Chukwu lifting the trophy S5S6. Squad member Felix Owolabi later described the win's significance beyond sport, recalling that "winning the Nations Cup was not just about lifting the trophy. It was about bringing the various ethnic groups in Nigeria together after the civil war," a reference to the conflict that had ended barely a decade earlier S6. The team reached the final again in 1984 and 1988 but lost both, finishing runner-up on each occasion S4
The Super Eagles era and the 1994 title
The nickname changed again after the 1988 final defeat to Cameroon. According to former goalkeeper Aloy Agu, players and coaches on tour in Monrovia in 1986 had already begun questioning the "Green Eagles" name, reasoning that "we have never seen an eagle that is green in colour," and after the 1988 runner-up finish then-Vice President Augustus Aikhomu formally announced the team's new identity as the Super Eagles at their homecoming reception S3. Under Dutch coach Clemens Westerhof, the Super Eagles won their second continental title at the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia, beating a Zambian side rebuilding after the 1993 air disaster that had killed much of its previous squad, 2–1 in the final in Tunis on 10 April 1994 S7. That team, built around Emmanuel Amunike, Rashidi Yekini, Daniel Amokachi and Jay-Jay Okocha, went on to make Nigeria's first appearance at the FIFA World Cup later that year, a campaign covered in full in nigeria at the fifa world cup S7
Continued success and the 2013 title
Nigeria added a third Africa Cup of Nations title in 2013, beating Burkina Faso 1–0 in the final in Johannesburg on 10 February 2013 under coach Stephen Keshi, himself a member of the 1994-winning squad, with assistant Sylvanus Okpala also a veteran of the 1980 title win S6. Nigeria has otherwise reached the final on five further occasions without winning, finishing runner-up in 1984, 1988, 2000 and, most recently, 2023 S1. Profiles of the current squad, its honours and its record at major tournaments are covered in full at super eagles S4
The Super Falcons: African women's football's dominant side
Women's football in Nigeria has, by trophy count, been considerably more successful than the men's game. The Super Falcons have won the Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON, formerly the African Women's Championship) a record ten times — in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018 and again in the 2024-numbered edition, whose final was delayed and eventually played on 26 July 2025 — and have reached every final ever contested at the tournament except one S8S9. That single exception came in 2022, when hosts Morocco eliminated Nigeria in the semi-final on penalties and South Africa went on to win the title, the first time in the competition's history that neither Nigeria nor a small group of perennial contenders reached the final S8. Nigeria reversed that result two years later: trailing Morocco 2–0 at half-time in the 2024/2025 final in Rabat, the Super Falcons scored three second-half goals — through Esther Okoronkwo's penalty, Folashade Ijamilusi and a late winner from Jennifer Echegini — to win 3–2 and reclaim the title, a result Forbes described as confirming Nigeria's status as "the most successful nation in WAFCON history with 10 titles" S8S9. The Super Falcons have also appeared at every FIFA Women's World Cup held since the tournament's 1991 inception, a longer unbroken run than any other African women's team S9
Institutions and legacy
Nigeria's domestic game is organised today under the Nigeria Football Federation (renamed from the NFA), which runs the country's top-flight men's competition, the Nigeria Professional Football League, alongside the Super Eagles, Super Falcons and Nigeria's various youth national teams S4. That domestic league history, together with the federation's structure, is covered separately in the sporting-history subcategory; this article's focus is the national teams whose results — three men's continental titles, ten women's continental titles and six men's World Cup appearances — have made football Nigeria's most closely followed sport S4