TheCosta Rica national football team (Spanish:Selección de fútbol de Costa Rica) representsCosta Rica in men's internationalfootball. The team is controlled by theFederación Costarricense de Fútbol (English:Costa Rican Football Federation), the governing body forfootball in Costa Rica. It has been a member ofFIFA since 1927 and a founding member ofCONCACAF since 1961. Regionally, it is also a member ofUNCAF. From 1938 to 1961, it was a member ofCCCF, the former governing body of football in Central America and Caribbean, and a predecessor confederation of CONCACAF. It was also a member ofPFC, the unified confederation of the Americas, from 1946 to 1961.
Costa Rica is the third most successful national team in its confederation and the most successful team from the Central American zone, winning 3CONCACAF Championship titles (1963,1969 and1989), becoming the first champions in the history of CONCACAF's premier continental competition. Regionally, Costa Rica won 7CCCF Championship titles (organized by CCCF, the former confederation for the Central American and Caribbean zones), and also won 8Copa Centroamericana titles (organized by UNCAF).
Since the late 1980s, the team has continuously been visible as a solidly competitive side and has been widely considered to be the second or third best team in the CONCACAF, with a prominent performance in the1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy, making it to theknockout stage in their debut after finishing second in their group during the first phase, belowBrazil. They also qualified for the2002 and2006 World Cups. In2014, Costa Rica achieved their best performance in history byfinishing first in their group that consisted of three former World Cup champions:Uruguay,Italy, andEngland. During the round 16 they defeatedGreece 5–3 via a penalty shoot-out after a 1–1 draw. Moreover, during their match against the Greek team,Keylor Navas saved more than 15 shots. They reached the quarter-finals for the first time but were defeated by theNetherlands, also in a penalty shoot-out (3–4) after a scoreless draw on 5 July.[4][5] Both their2018 and2022 World Cup campaigns ended in a fourth place group stage exit, with their only points coming from a 2–2 draw againstSwitzerland in 2018 and a 1–0 win overJapan in 2022.
Costa Rica's team in the late 1940s acquired the nickname "The Gold Shorties".[7] Throughout the '50s and '60s, they were the second strongest team in the CONCACAF zone behindMexico, finishing runners-up in World Cup qualifying in the 1958, 1962 and 1966 qualifiers. Stars of the side during this period included Ruben Jimenez, Errol Daniels, Leonel Hernandez and Edgar Marin. However, Costa Rica was not able to utilize this advantage, hence failed to reach any World Cup at that decade.
Costa Rica failed to qualify for any of the World Cups in the 1970s and 1980s, and did not reach the final round of the CONCACAF qualifying until the1986 qualifiers.
Costa Rica won the1989 CONCACAF Championship to qualify for the finals of aWorld Cup for the first time. In the first round of the qualifiers, they beatPanama 3–1 on aggregate after a 2–0 away victory in the second leg, with goals byJuan Cayasso andHernán Medford. They were drawn against Mexico in the second round, but advanced automatically when their opponents were disqualified for age fraud.
Costa Rica started the final qualifying group stage with a home victory and an away defeat against both Guatemala and the United States. They drew 1–1 with Trinidad and Tobago and then beat the same opponents 1–0 at home with a goal by Cayasso. They achieved an important away win, 4–2 against El Salvador at theEstadio Cuscatlán, with goals fromCarlos Hidalgo, Cayasso and a brace fromLeonidas Flores, before beating El Salvador 1–0 inSan José with a goal fromPastor Fernández. They finished first in the group table, ahead of the United States on goal difference.
Placed inGroup C at theWorld Cup finals, Costa Rica began by beatingScotland 1–0 thanks to another goal by Cayasso. Although they lost toBrazil by the same score, they came from behind to beatSweden 2–1 in their final group match to reach the knockout stages. There, they lost 4–1 toCzechoslovakia, for whomTomáš Skuhravý scored a hat-trick.
The Ticos played first in qualification for the2002 World Cup held inSouth Korea andJapan. During the qualifiers, Costa Rica were coached by BrazilianGílson Nunes, and then by the naturalised Brazilian,Alexandre Guimarães. The first qualifying group stage began with an unexpected 2–1 defeat toBarbados. After this humiliation, Costa Rica beat the United States 2–1 at theRicardo Saprissa Stadium, with goals fromRolando Fonseca andHernán Medford. They then beat Guatemala 2–1 in theEstadio Alejandro Morera Soto, with two goals fromPaulo Wanchope and Barbados 3–0 at the Ricardo Saprissa, with goals fromJafet Soto, Fonseca and Medford. A draw against the United States and a 2–1 defeat to Guatemala forced Costa Rica into a play-off against Guatemala inMiami. Costa Rica won 5–2 with two goals from Fonseca and one each from Wanchope,Reynaldo Parks andJafeth Soto.
Costa Rica displayed fine attacking form during the final qualifying round, beginning with a 2–2 draw against Honduras at the Ricardo Saprissa, with goals from Fonseca andRodrigo Cordero, and a 3–0 defeat of Trinidad and Tobago at the Morera Soto. Their only loss in this round came when the United States beat them 1–0. Costa Rica bounced back with a 2–1 win against Mexico inMexico City, a match known as theAztecazo,[8] with goals from Fonseca and Medford. Further wins overJamaica, Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago took Costa Rica to the brink of qualification, which they sealed with an emotional 2–0 win against the United States in the Saprissa, with a brace from Fonseca.
In thefinals, Costa Rica were drawn intoGroup C with Brazil,China, andTurkey. Their campaign started inGwangju, where the Ticos beat China 2–0. In their second game against Turkey inIncheon,Winston Parks scored an 86th-minute goal to earn a 1–1 draw. Against Brazil, Costa Rica fought back from 3–0 down to 3–2 early in the second half, only to concede two further goals and lose 5–2. With Turkey beating China 3–0, Costa Rica finished behind Turkey on goal difference and were eliminated.
Costa Rica again managed to qualify for theWorld Cup finals in 2006, albeit with difficulties that saw their American coachSteve Sampson depart after they required away goals to beatCuba in the preliminary phase. The ColombianJorge Luis Pinto took over for thenext round, which began with a disastrous 5–2 defeat at home against Honduras and a 2–1 loss in Guatemala. Costa Rica recovered with two wins over Canada and a resounding 5–0 triumph over Guatemala, when Wanchope scored a hat-trick andCarlos Hernández and Fonseca added further goals. Costa Rica advanced to the hexagonal round by winning the group.
In thefinal round they started with a 2–1 defeat against Mexico at the Saprissa, before beating Panama by the same score, with goals from Wayne Wilson andRoy Myrie. Pinto was dismissed after a goalless draw with Trinidad and Tobago, and Guimarães returned as coach. His first match ended in a 3–0 defeat to the United States, but wins followed against Guatemala, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago. Costa Rica decisively beat the United States in the Saprissa, 3–0, with a goal from Wanchope and two from Hernández, to guarantee their third World Cup qualification.
^abTied on head-to-head points (3). Head-to-head goal difference: United States +1, Mexico −1.
On 9 June 2006, Costa Rica played their debut match inMunich in the opening match of the World Cup against the hosts,Germany. Wanchope scored to equalise after an early goal fromPhilipp Lahm, and later added another, but Costa Rica lost 4–2. They failed to match this encouraging performance in their remaining two games, losing 3–0 againstEcuador and 2–1 againstPoland in a dead rubber.
Costa Rica began thequalifying competition for the2010 World Cup againstGrenada, winning 5–2 on aggregate (2–2, 3–0). They won all six games played in the next phase, against El Salvador (1–0, 3–1), Haiti (3–1, 2–0) andSuriname (7–0, 4–1).
With two games left in theHexagonal round, Costa Rica trailed Honduras by one point in trying to win the third automatic qualification place behind the United States and Mexico. When Honduras lost 3–2 at home to the United States, Costa Rica overtook them with a 4–0 win against Trinidad and Tobago. Needing to win the final match inWashington, D.C. against the United States to ensure qualification, the Ticos led 2–0 at half-time, butJonathan Bornstein scored an injury-time equaliser to draw the match 2–2. Meanwhile, Honduras's 1–0 victory over El Salvador moved them into third place in the group table on goal difference.
Costa Rica finished fourth, pushing them into aplay-off with the fifth-placed team from theCONMEBOL region, Uruguay. The Ticos lost the first leg in San José 1–0, after a goal byDiego Lugano, and finished with ten men afterRandall Azofeifa was sent off. In the second leg, played at the Estadio Centenario inMontevideo,Sebastián Abreu put Uruguay ahead twenty minutes from time, and althoughWalter Centeno equalised, the 1–1 draw sent Uruguay to the World Cup finals, 2–1 on aggregate.
After failing to qualify, the team began a new era, with the young talent of players such as Azofeifa,Keylor Navas,Cristian Bolaños,Michael Barrantes andJoel Campbell.Rónald González was the interim coach beforeRicardo La Volpe was appointed in September 2010. He lasted only ten months before being replaced by the Colombian, Jorge Luis Pinto, in his second spell in charge. During this period, Costa Rica played many friendlies against the top-ranked teams in the world, including the world championSpain, most of them in the new national stadium, theEstadio Nacional, which was opened in 2011.
The Ticos'2014 World Cup campaign began with a 2–2 draw against El Salvador in the third round of thequalifiers. They followed this with a 4–0 win overGuyana with a hat-trick byÁlvaro Saborío. Two defeats to Mexico put the Ticos one defeat away from elimination, but they resurrected their campaign with a 1–0 win against El Salvador, with the only goal scored byJosé Miguel Cubero. They clinched a final round berth with a 7–0 win over Guyana, with goals scored byRandall Brenes, Saborío,Cristian Bolaños,Celso Borges andCristian Gamboa.
Thefourth round began with a 2–2 draw against Panama. In March, Costa Rica lost 1–0 against the United States inDenver, and launched an unsuccessful appeal against the match because of inclement weather.[10] Costa Rica again fell 1–0 to the United States in theGold Cup that June.[11] Costa Rica then won 2–0 against Jamaica, beat Honduras 1–0 against, drew 0–0 at theAzteca against Mexico and won at home 2–0 against Panama. In September, they won 3–1 against the United States in San José.
On 10 September 2013, Costa Rica drew 1–1 with Jamaica, thanks to a goal from Brenes, to qualify with two games to spare. After a 1–0 loss at Honduras and 2–1 win over Mexico in October, Costa Rica finished second in the table, behind the United States.
Costa Rica were drawn in finals Group D against three previous tournament winners –Italy,England and Uruguay – and were given odds of 2500–1 to win the tournament.[citation needed] However, they beat Uruguay and Italy and drew 0–0 with England to finish top of the group and qualify for the knockout stage.
In the second round, they beatGreece 5–3 on penalties after a 1–1 draw, seeing them through to the quarter-finals for the first time. There, they held theNetherlands to a 0–0 draw after extra time, before losing 4–3 on penalties. Costa Rica rose 12 places to 16th in theFIFA World Rankings. Former playerRónald González cited their long-term progress since 2007 as the reason for their achievement.[13]
The Ticos' qualification for the2018 World Cup started with a bye to thefourth qualifying round, where they won five games and drew one, winning their group. In thefinal round, they finished second behind Mexico to qualify automatically, winning four matches, drawing four and losing two.
Costa Rica were drawn inGroup E alongside Brazil, Switzerland andSerbia. Many key players from 2014 remained in the squad, but they made a disappointing exit at the group stage. Costa Rica lost their first two games, against Serbia and Brazil, without scoring, but drew 2–2 with Switzerland in their last match after equalising in injury time.
The Ticos' qualification for the2022 World Cup started with a bye to the final qualifying round. They finished fourth behind the United States to advance tointer-confederation play-offs winning seven matches, drawing four and losing three. In the inter-confederation play-offs inAl Rayyan, Qatar, Costa Rica won the match 1–0 against New Zealand and qualified for the World Cup.
On November 23, 2022, Costa Rica lost 7–0 against Spain, the biggest World Cup loss since 2010.[14] This match also tied for their worst defeat in professional football with a match against Mexico, which ended with Mexico 7–0 Costa Rica in Mexico Cityon 17 August 1975. After defeatingJapan and scoring two goals againstGermany in the first half, the latter scored three goals and eliminated Costa Rica.
Costa Rica's 2018 FIFA World Cup kit showcased inLimón
Costa Rica traditionally wears a red jersey with blue shorts and white socks. Their away kit historically was aJuventus-style black and white striped jersey with white shorts and white or black socks, due to these colors being the ones of CS La Libertad, one of the oldest clubs in Costa Rica. In the 1990 FIFA World Cup, the striped kit was used for two matches due to its resemblance to the home kit ofFK Partizan of which Bora Milutinovic, then-coach of Costa Rica, was a fan.[15] However, after 1997, the striped kit was replaced by a white kit. In 2015,Boston-based sportswear companyNew Balance became the provider of the national team, after taking over for Italian companyLotto. Since 2023,Adidas is the kit provider for the national team.
The following players were called up to the squad for the2026 FIFA World Cup qualification matches againstHaiti andHonduras on 13 and 18 November 2025.[16] Caps and goals correct as of 18 November 2025, after the match againstHonduras.
Official continental competition organized byPFC. It was a unified confederation of the Americas, which was formed by NAFC, CCCF and CONMEBOL, from 1946 to 1961.
Official regional competition organized byCCCF. It was a predecessor confederation of CONCACAF, affiliated with FIFA as the former governing body of football in Central America and Caribbean, from 1938 to 1961.
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