🏆 Australia national football team 2026 World Cup Squads

The Australia men's national soccer team represents Australia in international men's soccer. Officially nicknamed the Socceroos, the team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football Australia, which is affiliated with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the regional ASEAN Football Federation (AFF).

The team played its first match in 1922 and originally participated in the Oceania Football Confederation (OFC) from 1966 to 1972, before moving to the AFC from 1973 to 1978 and back to the OFC from 1979 to 2005. In this confederation, Australia won the OFC Nations Cup four times between 1980 and 2004, and dominated many FIFA World Cup qualification campaigns during earlier rounds. The team won 31–0 against the American Samoa national football team in a FIFA World Cup qualification match, achieving the world record for the largest victory in a senior international match. Despite this, the team only managed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup twice in 11 attempts while in this confederation, because Oceania's single qualification berth always led to an intercontinental playoff, which did not guarantee straight qualification.

In a bid to improve its competitiveness, the team returned to the AFC in 2006, finishing the AFC Asian Cup as runners-up in 2011 and winning in 2015 as hosts. This victory made Australia the only team in the world to win two different confederation cups. Since switching confederations, the team has maintained a perfect qualification record for the World Cup, earning five consecutive spots for a total of seven appearances. Australia has reached the World Cup knockout stages three times, advancing to this round in 2006, 2022 and 2026. Despite its AFF membership, Australia currently does not contest the ASEAN Championship due to a mutual agreement, though it does compete in youth iterations.

The team additionally represented Australia at the now-defunct FIFA Confederations Cup four times, winning a silver and bronze medal in 1997 and 2001 respectively. Mark Schwarzer has the most caps for Australia, with 109 to his name, while Tim Cahill has the most goals scored, with 50. Australia initially developed a rivalry with New Zealand and an intercontinental rivalry with Uruguay, and, after returning to the AFC, has developed a rivalry with Japan.