Original Umbro football shirt football school Ireland

The Ireland national football team is a team of footballers that represents the Republic of Ireland in international men's competitions and is known for its large fan base, nicknamed The Green Army. It played its first official international match in March 1926 and has since played more than five hundred games, first as the Irish Free State and from 1938 as an independent republic.

In the 1980s, the Irish national team had a golden generation, which, under the leadership of Englishman Jack Charlton, was able to force placement for the first international tournament in 1988, namely the European Championship. Success under Charlton lasted until 1994, with the country qualifying twice for the World Cup. Ireland last participated in a World Cup in 2002. Under Giovanni Trapattoni, it qualified for a European Championship for the second time in 2012; Ireland also qualified for the subsequent tournament, which took place in France in June 2016.

Ireland has a special rivalry with Northern Ireland, with which it formed a single national team in the early twentieth century. Robbie Keane, played the most matches of all internationals: 146 caps in eighteen years. He is also the all-time top scorer with 68 goals, more than forty more than the number two on the top scorers list, Niall Quinn.