TheCongolese Association Football Federation was founded in 1919 when the country was not yet independent. The team played their first game in 1948 asBelgian Congo againstNorthern Rhodesia, now Zambia. The team recorded a 3–2 victory at home. DR Congo has beenFIFA affiliated since 1962 and has been a member ofCAF since 1963. The team's first official match was on 11 April 1963, againstMauritania in theL'Amitié Tournament played inDakar, Senegal. DR Congo won the match 6–0.[5] The national team appeared in theAfrica Cup of Nations for the first time in1965.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo had its first international success at the1968 African Cup of Nations held inEthiopia, beatingGhana 1–0 in the final. The team's biggest ever win came on 22 November 1969 when they recorded a 10–1 home victory againstZambia. Although a handful of Congolese players were playing in Europe (particularly Belgium) during these years, foreign-based players were seldom recalled for international duty; a rare exception wasJulien Kialunda who represented Zaire (as the country was by then known) at the1972 African Cup of Nations while playing forAnderlecht.
The second continental title came at the1974 African Cup of Nations in Egypt. The Leopards recorded a 2–1 victory againstGuinea, another 2–1 victory against rivalsCongo and a 4–1 victory againstMauritius. These results carried Zaire through to the semi-finals where they beat hostsEgypt 3–2. In the final, Zaire drew withZambia 2–2. Therefore, the match was replayed two days later, where Zaire won the game 2–0. Zaire playerNdaye Mulamba was top scorer with nine goals, which remains a record for the tournament. After this, the team returned to Zaire on the Presidential plane, lent to them byMobutu Sese Seko.
Zaire were the firstSub-Saharan African team to participate in aWorld Cup, qualifying for the1974 tournament in place of the 1970 participantMorocco, whom they defeated in the decisive qualifier 3–0 inKinshasa.[6] Such was the desire to foster an identity of Zaire as a global player that Mobutu paid for advertising hoardings at the World Cup to display messages such as ‘Zaire-Peace’ and ‘Go to Zaire’.[7] At the tournament itself, Zaire did not manage to score any goals and lost all of its games, but gave credible performances againstScotland andBrazil. However, their 9–0 loss againstYugoslavia remains one of the worst World Cup defeats. A bizarre moment came in the match versus Brazil; facing a free-kick 25 yards out, defenderMwepu Ilunga, upon hearing the referee blow his whistle, ran out of the Zaire wall and kicked the ball upfield, for which he received a yellow card. This was voted the 17th greatest World Cup moment in a Channel 4 poll.[8] Ilunga has stated that he was quite aware of the rules and was hoping to convince the referee to send him off. The intended red card would have been a protest against his country's authorities, who were alleged to be depriving the players of their earnings.[9] Many contemporary commentators instead held it to be an example of African football's "naïvety and indiscipline".[10]
From 1992 to 1996, Zaire, reached three consecutiveAfrican Cup of Nations quarter-finals. In 1992 and 1994, they were beaten byNigeria, and in 1996 they were beaten byGhana. In 1997, the country returned to its former name of Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the national team was re-branded as the Simbas, a nickname that stuck for the next nine years.[11] DR Congo played their first game on 8 June 1997 inPointe-Noire which ended in a 1–0 loss to the Republic of the Congo. At the1998 African Cup of Nations, DR Congo, led by Louis Watunda, surprisingly took third place, beatingCameroon in the quarter-finals and hostsBurkina Faso 4–1 on penalties in their last match after scoring three late goals to tie the encounter 4–4.
At the2000 African Cup of Nations, the team finished third in their group, and in2002 were eliminated in the quarter-finals bySenegal. Then, in2004, DR Congo were eliminated after three straight defeats in the group stages. In2006, led byClaude Le Roy, having finished second in the group behindCameroon, the Congolese were eliminated in the quarter-finals byEgypt 4–1.
DR Congo were drawn in group 10 for qualifications for the2008 African Cup of Nations, along withLibya,Namibia andEthiopia. Before the last match day, the Congolese led the group, but they drew 1–1 with Libya in their final match while Namibia beat Ethiopia 3–2. This sent Namibia through to the Finals, while the Leopards were eliminated. DR Congo also failed to qualify for the2010 World Cup. In 2009, DR Congo won the2009 African Championship of Nations, a competition reserved to players in domestic leagues, a tournament they would again win in2016. DR Congo reached the2013 Africa Cup of Nations finals in South Africa but were knocked out in the group stages after drawing all three matches.
In the2015 Africa Cup of Nations, DR Congo again drew all three group matches but this time finished second in the group behind Tunisia, and therefore advanced to the quarter-finals to play their rivalsRepublic of Congo, a match in which the Leopards came from two goals down to win 4–2. However, they were knocked out by the Ivory Coast 3–1 in the semi-finals. They ended up finishing third, beating Equatorial Guinea on penalties, after the third place match finished 0–0 in regulation time.
DR Congo under Ibengé improved radically and had an outstanding performance for many decades in a World Cup qualification. During the2018 FIFA World Cup qualification, DR Congo was grouped withLibya,Tunisia andGuinea. DR Congo managed an outstanding performance, beating Libya and Guinea home and away, but missed the chance after losing 1–2 to eventual World Cup qualifier Tunisia inTunis and drew 2–2 at home to the same opponent.
The following players have been selected for the2025 Africa Cup of Nations between 21 December 2025 – 18 January 2026.[12] Caps and goals as of 6 January 2026, after the match againstAlgeria.
INJ Player withdrew from the squad due to an injury. PRE Preliminary squad. RET Player has retired from international football. SUS Suspended from the national team.
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