Los Cafeteros

The Colombia national football team (Spanish: Selección de fútbol de Colombia) is nicknamed Los Cafeteros due to the coffee production in their country. The team represents Colombia in men’s international football and is managed by the Colombian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Colombia. They are an member of CONMEBOL.

The national team is a symbol of fighting the country’s negative reputation. This has made the sport popular and made the national team a sign of nationalism, pride, and passion for many Colombians worldwide. Colombia is known for having a passionate fan base.

Colombia’s main geopolitical rival is Venezuela. However, because of the lack of interest for football in Venezuela, the rivalry is historically very one-sided for Colombia and thus considered irrelevant. This state of affairs started to change, when football slowly began replacing baseball as Venezuela’s main sport.

The historical Colombian 5–0 victory in 1993, beating host Argentina in the 1994 World Cup qualifiers, was the very first time Argentina lost in its home stadium Estadio Monumental Antonio Vespucio Liberti during a qualifying match for a World Cup. Argentina comes as a previous twice World Cup champion. It caused a huge upset and start of a respective rivalry. Unlike other rivalries full of hostility, the Colombian–Argentine rivalry is more based on “respect” than a “hated” relationship always attracting great interest between both nations. After the wane of the Valderrama’s generation, the rivalry became one-sided again and since then only Colombians kept considering a classic while Argentineans consider it many steps below their historic rivalries against Brazil, England and Uruguay.

Colombia also has another small rivalry against Peru, which both fought in the Leticia Incident to control the Amazon region. Peru is often seen as the buildup of Colombia’s football successes, as Colombia had eliminated Peru during qualification for the 1962 World Cup to secure its maiden appearance. Matches between the two teams also draw a great level of intensity, although not as hostile as Colombia’s rivalry with Brazil.

Colombia has a more hostile rivalry against Brazil due to the 2014 FIFA World Cup encounter, where Brazil defeated Colombia 2–1 overshadowed by Neymar’s injury and referee’s favoritism towards Brazil against Colombia. This would later cause matches between the two national teams to be more intense, aggressive and to a certain extent, played with great hostility with numerous violent incidents. The rivalry would soon improve in a less hostile manner after the 2016 Copa Sudamericana Finals after Atlético Nacional asked to award the trophy for Associação Chapecoense de Futebol. Nonetheless, it remains a competitive rivalry between the two.

Colombia plays their qualifying matches and friendlies at the Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Melendez in Barranquilla.

Traditionally, Colombia’s home colours are yellow shirts with navy trim and navy or white shorts and socks and their away colours being normally navy shirts.