Aruba national football team

Aruba national football team
The Aruba national football team (Dutch: Arubaans voetbalelftal; Papiamento: Seleccion Arubano di futbol) is the national team of Aruba. It was founded in 1932 and is affiliated with the Caribbean Football Union (CFU), CONCACAF and FIFA (since 1988) and is controlled by the Arubaanse Voetbal Bond.
The team has never qualified for the FIFA World Cup or the CONCACAF Gold Cup.
History
Between 1924 and 1933, Aruba only played against Curaçao, although these matches are not considered official. In the 1950s these matches were used to select the best players for the Netherlands Antilles team. Aruban players like Jani Brokke played for the Netherlands Antilles at the 1952 Olympic Games. Under the flag of the Curaçao Football Association (C.V.B.), they won gold with the Netherlands Antilles team at the 1950 Central American and Caribbean Games and participated in the 1953 CCCF Championship.
In the 1950s the A.V.B. organised friendly matches and mini tournaments on the island. Examples are the 1952 match between Aruba and football club Botafogo (3-1) and the 1953 series between Aruba, Surinam, British Guiana and professional club La Salle F.C. from Venezuela. Aruba participated in its first tournament at the 1955 CCCF Championship, where they finished in 5th place. In 1958, A.V.B. and C.V.B. merged into the Netherlands Antillean Football Union. Aruba took part in the Netherlands Antilles national football team until their secession in 1986.
Following its split from the Netherlands Antilles, the Aruba Football Federation was affiliated in 1988 with CONCACAF and FIFA. Aruba entered qualifying for the 1989 Caribbean Cup, and in its first group match it suffered the worst defeat in its history, at the hands of Trinidad and Tobago, which crushed them 11–0. They played their first World Cup qualifying match against the Dominican Republic as part of the 1998 World Cup qualifying. Aruba has participated in all the qualifying tournaments for the World Cup since, without being able to get past the first qualifying round.
Aruba has also yet to qualify for the Caribbean Cup. However, they showed some progress in the preliminary round of the 2014 Caribbean Cup by getting two wins against Turks and Caicos (1–0) and British Virgin Islands (7–0), the latter being the biggest victory in its history. These results allowed them to reach 120th place in the FIFA World Ranking for the month of June 2014, their best ranking to date. Following these victories, Aruba lost 2–0 against French Guiana and were eliminated.
Aruba began their 2018 World Cup qualification in the second round against Barbados, losing 2–0 at home and 1–0 away, however FIFA ruled that Barbados had fielded an ineligible player, giving Aruba a 3–0 second leg victory and advancing them to the third round. Despite that, in the next round they were defeated again, this time by Saint Vincent and the Grenadines who won 3–2 on aggregate. Aruba failed to progress in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, finishing 4th in the first round.
Results and fixtures
The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.
2022
2023
Coaching history
René Notten (1995)
Ángel Botta (1996)
Marco Rasmijn (2000)
Marcelo Muñoz (2004)
Azing Griever (2004–2006)
Marcelo Muñoz (2008–2010)
Epi Albertus (2010–2012)
Giovanni Franken (2013–2015)
Rini Coolen (2015)
Martin Koopman (2015–2020)
Marvic Bermúdez (2020)
Stanley Menzo (2021–2022)
Marvic Bermúdez (2022–)
Players
Current squad
The following players were called up for the 2022–23 CONCACAF Nations League C match against Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Caps and goals correct as of 26 November 2022, after the match against Saint Kitts and Nevis.
Recent call-ups
The following players have been recently called up by the national squad.
Player records
Players in bold are still active with Aruba.
Most appearances
Top goalscorers
Competitive record
FIFA World Cup
Aruba qualification for the world cup click here
CONCACAF Gold Cup
CONCACAF Nations League
CFU Caribbean Cup
ABCS Tournament
*Draws include knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.
Head-to-head record
Note: teams that are in italics indicates that the team is a historical team of a polity not existing anymore, or a team which is not a FIFA member.
As of 6 June 2021
These all-time records are exclusively class 'A' internationals matches.
References
External links
Country profile – FIFA
Country roster – National Football Teams
Team 2008
Netherlands Antilles vs Aruba, Digicel Caribbean Championships 2008, YouTube
Grenada vs Aruba, Digicel Caribbean Championships 2008, YouTube
Caribbean national association football teams