Ecuador

Ecuador, nicknamed La Tri, are a CONMEBOL member whose senior men's national team qualified for five FIFA World Cups and has competed in the Copa América since 1939. Their greatest World Cup achievement remains reaching the round of 16 at Germany 2006, and they have qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Ecuador's football federation was established on 30 May 1925, and the national team played its first international match on 8 August 1938 — a 1–1 draw with Bolivia at the Bolivarian Games in Bogotá. Despite consistent Copa América participation from 1939 onward, the side spent decades on the periphery of South American football, never qualifying for the World Cup until the new millennium.

The breakthrough arrived at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, where Ecuador qualified for the first time under coach Hernán Darío Gómez — a campaign that included a famous victory over Brazil in CONMEBOL qualifying. Four years later in Germany they surpassed that achievement, winning their opening group matches against Poland and Costa Rica before being eliminated by England in the round of 16, still the team's best World Cup finish. Ecuador returned to the World Cup in 2014 but went out in the group stage, and the 2022 cycle was complicated by a point deduction related to the Byron Castillo eligibility controversy.

The modern era has brought renewed optimism. Moisés Caicedo, Piero Hincapié and Pervis Estupiñán have established themselves at top European clubs while captain Enner Valencia — the country's all-time leading scorer — led the 2026 qualifying campaign. Ecuador qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and will face Germany, Ivory Coast, and Curaçao in the group stage.