Mali is in Group F of AFCON 2021 hosted by Cameroon. Tunisia, Mauritania and Gambia are the other teams in the group.
The Mali national football team, nicknamed Les Aigles (The Eagles), is the national team of Mali and is controlled by the Malian Football Federation.
Mali competes as members of both FIFA and the Confederation of African Football (CAF). They have never qualified for a World Cup finals in their team's history.
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The Eagles have never won the Africa Cup of Nations, however, their best result at the tournament was Runners-up in 1972 losing 3-2 to Congo.
Mali have qualified for the tournament 12 times in total, finishing as runners-up once, third twice, and fourth three times.
The Eagles played their first World Cup qualifier in the year 2000. As part of the CAF's qualifiers for the 2002 World Cup, Mali lost in the preliminary round to Libya. Two years later, the country hosted the 2002 African Cup of Nations.
In the 2010 African Nations Cup, Mali made football headlines for coming back from losing 4-0 with eleven minutes left to level 4-4 with Angola.
It is considered to be one of the best comebacks in recent memory, alongside Sweden's famous comeback against Germany in a 2014 World Cup qualifier with the same scoreline.
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On March 17, 2017, Mali were suspended by FIFA due to 'government interference' with the national football association, namely dissolving its executive committee. However, the side was re-instated by FIFA on 29 April after the executive committee was re-introduced by the Malian government.
The team is currently coached by Mohamed Magassouba. He was caretaker manager between September 2017 and July 2019, before becoming permanent manager in October 2019.
Former captain and retired Seydou Keita is the nation's all-time top scorer with 25 goals in 102 appearances as well as the Eagles most capped player with 102 appearances.
The Eagles are currently ranked 53th in the World and 9th in Africa, with its lowest ranking coming on October 2001 being placed 117th whilst achieving their highest on June 2013 occupying the 23rd position.