 | |||
| Nickname | Canario (The Canaries) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Association | Federación Canaria de Fútbol | ||
| Head coach | José Caballero | ||
| |||
| First international | |||
 Canary Islands 5–1Venezuela  (Las Palmas,Canary Islands; 6 February 1996) | |||
| Biggest win | |||
| Canary Islands 5–1Venezuela (Las Palmas,Canary Islands; 6 February 1996) | |||
| Biggest defeat | |||
Canary Islands 0–14Argentina U23  (Las Palmas,Canary Islands; 14 November 2019) | |||
TheCanary Islands national football team is the "regional" football team for theCanary Islands,Spain, that contests onlyfriendly matches as the Canary Islands are represented internationally by theSpain national football team. They are unaffiliated withFIFA orUEFA/CAF.[1]
The Canary Islands under-19 team competes annually in theAtlantic Cup, an international tournament for U19 soccer teams held on the island ofGran Canaria, measuring themselves against the Spanish team and two other guests, in a competition that starts in the semifinals.[2]
The successes of theSpain national team at the1920 Summer Olympics and their participation in the1924 edition were well known by the Canarian people, who had also enjoyed directly watching the game of some of its players, who themselves were very enthusiastic in wanting to expand the sport in the islands, looking for a more flattering future than the one that awaited most of them on the islands. All these reasons led to the beginning of the planning of a "tournee" of a representative group of Canarian players through the mainland, and once the initiative arose, the rest of the local first-class clubs welcomed the idea, but suggested that instead of a club, a selection with the best players should be taken.[3] The team who embarked on the "tournee" to Spain was mainly made up of players from local club Real Victoria, which had the likes ofÁngel Arocha andJosé Padrón.
On 26 April 1925, the island team is announced inValencia under the name of "Canarian Selection", and so, although the Selection of the Canary Islands was only officially created in 1996, there have been three matches in which the presence of the Canarian National Team was announced, twice in 1925 againstValencia CF inMestalla, and once in 1952 againstSan Lorenzo de Almagro inChamartín, and these games ended in a draw, a loss, and a win.[3] Valencia FC was a powerful team at the time, and as expected, they scored first viaEduardo Cubells, but the Canarians fought back and equalized in the second-half courtesy ofPadrón, and they managed to hold on to a 1-1 draw, which was seen as a great triumph for the Canarian players to have tied with such a superior team.[4] On the other hand, the Valencian team was left embarrassed and asked for a tie-breaker to define the winner of their meeting, and both teams agreed to this new match, which took place two days later on 21 April, and their second clash generated so much expectation that it nearly filled Valencia's stadium. The game ended in a 0-3 loss to the Canarians.[5] The excursion would continue throughCastellón,Barcelona,Zaragoza andMadrid, and then coming back to play again inBarcelona,Seville andHuelva before returning to the Canary Islands.
The second time that the Canarian National Team was announced on the peninsula was against the powerful Argentinian team ofSan Lorenzo de Almagro. This meeting was arranged in tribute to José María Úbeda, a great sports critic forPueblo and once an excellent footballer who had recently died, with the proceeds of the game going to help his family.[6]Arsenio Arocha, a formerReal Madrid player and then linked toAtlético Madrid, was chosen as the coach, and he formed a Canarian XI made up of sevenGran Canarians, threeTenerifens and onePalmero. The team that lined up on 10 January 1952 against San Lorenzo at theChamartín had the likes ofLuis Molowny andRosendo Hernández.[3] The Canarians scored four goals in just half an hour, the goalscorers being Hernández (twice), Cabrera and Gallardo. Cabrera netted his second and Canarian's fifth, but it was ruled out offside because of a threat of withdrawal from the Argentines, who fought during the clash with extreme violence, causing the injury of Canary's only goalkeeper, Cristóbal, which forced the Canarians to replace him withReal Madrid's goalkeeperJuanito Alonso, who was in the stands of Chamartín (the then Real Madrid Stadium) watching the game. The Canarians played considerably less in the second half due to the effort in the first, or because they already considered the victory assured, or because they chose to dodge the kicks of their rivals instead of trying to score one more goal, and naturally, they conceded two goals in the second half in an eventual 4-2 win.[3][6]
Their first official match was held on 6 February 1996 atEstadio Insular againstVenezuela, who was making a three-match tour of the Canary Islands starting with them, and surprisingly, the Canarians trashed them 5-1, and remarkably, one of the Canary goalscorers,Juan Carlos Socorro, was a Venezuelan who at the time was playing forUD Las Palmas.[citation needed] On their next game on 22 December 1998, they also won by a 4-0 goal margin (4-0), this time againstLatvia. Their first (and only) defeat came in the rematch against Venezuela on 17 May 2002, where they lost 0-2. In total, they played five games, 4 of which atLas Palmas, with the exception being the one held atTenerife on 21 December 1999, which was also the only match where they faced a B team,Yugoslavia B. On 29 December 2007, after a 5-year hiatus, many of the best Canarian football players of the First and Second divisions delighted their fans with a 2-0 win over a2006 World Cup team,Angola, with goals fromAdrián Martín andJorge Larena.[7] The game against Angola still is their most recent fixture.
v Canary Islands| 26 April 1925Friendly | Valencia FC | 1–1 | Canary Islands | Valencia, Canary Islands |
Cubells 37' | Report | Padrón 68' | Stadium:Mestalla Referee: Humbert |
v Canary Islands| 27 April 1925Friendly | Valencia FC | 3–0 | Canary Islands | Las Palmas, Canary Islands |
| Prats 39' Peral 62'Montes 74' | Report | Stadium:Estadio Insular Referee: Juanito Martínez |
vSan Lorenzo| 10 January 1950Friendly | Canary Islands | 4–2 | San Lorenzo | Madrid, Spain |
| Hernández 10',30' Cabrera 23'Gallardo 28' | Report | Silva 2half',2half' | Stadium:Chamartín Attendance: 40,000 Referee: Brown |
v Venezuela| 6 February 1996Friendly | Canary Islands | 5–1 | Venezuela | Las Palmas, Canary Islands |
| Robaina 3' Quintana 40'Sandro 49'Socorro 56'Migue 59' | [ Report] | Rivas 29' | Stadium:Estadio Insular |
v
Latvia| 22 December 1998Friendly | Canary Islands | 4–0 | Latvia | Las Palmas, Canary Islands |
| [ Report] | Stadium:Estadio Insular |
v
Yugoslavia B| 21 December 1999Friendly | Canary Islands | 2–2 | Yugoslavia B | Tenerife, Canary Islands |
| Germán Rafa | Report | Petković Pažin | Stadium:Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez López |
v Venezuela| 17 May 2002Friendly | Canary Islands | 0–2 | Venezuela | Las Palmas, Canary Islands |
| Report | Vallenilla Moreno | Stadium:Estadio Insular |
v
Angola| 29 December 2007Friendly | Canary Islands | 2–0 | Angola | Las Palmas, Canary Islands |
| Adrián Martín 1half' Jorge Larena 2half' | Report | Stadium:Estadio Gran Canaria |
Canary Islands' kit is a white jersey with piping gold with blue shorts and yellow socks. Their away kit is with a blue jersey. The kits are currently manufactured byAdidas, since 2012 the federation has supplied byPony International.
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