East Timor national under-23 football team

The East Timor national Under-23 football team (Portuguese: Seleção Timorense de Futebol Sub-23) represents the East Timor (recognized as Timor-Leste) in international football competitions in the Olympic Games, Asian Games, Southeast Asian Games and any other under-23 international football tournaments. It is controlled by the Federação de Futebol de Timor-Leste, the governing body of football in the country. East Timor is currently one of the weakest teams in the world. They won their first match on 5 November 2011 against Brunei, scoring 2–1.^[1]

Timor-Leste

Nickname(s)	O Sol Nascente (The Rising Sun)
Association	Federação de Futebol de Timor-Leste
Confederation	AFC (Asia)
Sub-confederation	AFF (Southeast Asia)
Head coach	Park Soon-tae
Captain	Filomeno Junior
Most caps	Ramos Maxanches Nilo Soares (18)
Top scorer	Murilo de Almeida Henrique Cruz Mouzinho (3)
Home stadium	East Timor National Stadium
FIFA code	TLS
First colours Second colours
First international
Malaysia 3–0 East Timor  (Bangkok, Thailand; 30 August 2005)
Biggest win
East Timor 7–1 Macau  (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; 23 July 2017)
Biggest defeat
Malaysia 11–0 East Timor  (Vientiane, Laos; 2 December 2009)
Asian Games
Appearances	2 (first in 2014)
Best result	Group Stage (2014, 2018)
Southeast Asian Games
Appearances	8 (first in 2009)
Best result	Group Stage (8 times)
AFF U-23 Championship
Appearances	4 (first in 2005)
Best result	Third place (2022)

Football was firstly introduced during Portuguese Timor era where many local and the Portuguese colonial official played the sport for enjoyment. After the Portuguese leave the eastern part of the island of Timor, neighbouring Indonesia invaded and change their culture and identity. East Timor gained full independence in 2002 after more than 20 years of occupation which resulted in a long running battle against Jakarta-led forces. The Timor-Leste U-23 team was invited to the 2005 AFF U-23 Youth Championship without any success, which is the first time that the team played in an international tournament. In 2009, the team entered the first Southeast Asian Games. Once again, they lost every match, including a 0–11 loss to Malaysia. Timor-Leste had major improvements at the 2011 SEA Games, when they used overseas players of Timorese descent from Brazil and Australia. These players contributed a lot to their successful run; especially from Murilo de Almeida who managed to score three goals. The team finished third in their group by recording their first win in their history, finishing above Laos, Brunei and the Philippines and had a goal difference of –4, which was a big improvement compared to their previous participation where the team finished last in their group with no wins from four games, scoring only once and having a goal difference of –28.

Timor-Leste's traditional home kit includes a red shirt, black shorts and red or black socks. The away kits feature white or yellow shirts. At the 2009 SEA Games, their home kit resemble the one worn by the Belgium national team.

• East Timor National Stadium (2002–present)

(Under-23 Team since 2002)

(Under-23 Team since 2001)

• The following players were selected for the 2021 SEA Games.

  Win   Draw   Loss

31st Southeast Asian Games

• Profile at FIFA.com
• Profile at the-AFC.com
• Profile at AFF Site