India

Early years (1930s–1940s)

The first known official international tour of the Indian team, which at that time consisted of both Indian and British players, was in 1924 when it was led by Indian footballer Gostha Pal.

Football teams consisting of entirely Indian players started to tour Australia, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand during the late 1930s. The first international match India played before independence is yet to be verified, but they are known to have played Ceylon in 1933, winning 1–0.

In the year 1937, India carried out a lengthy tour of Australia at the request of the Australian Football Association. From August to October, they played 17 matches against various state, district, and club teams, and 5 friendly matches against the Australian national team. The first of these, on 3 September in Sydney, is India's first international game to be recognised by FIFA, and ended in a 5–3 defeat. After drawing the second match in Brisbane 4–4, India won the third match at Newcastle 4–1 to claim their first international win.

The national team played their first match as an independent nation in the first round of the 1948 Summer Olympics against France, in a 2–1 defeat. Famously, the Indian team did not wear boots, playing either barefoot or in socks, something that would be banned by FIFA later in the year.

Golden years (1950s–1960s)

In 1950, India managed to qualify for the 1950 FIFA World Cup, which was scheduled to take place in Brazil, after all the other teams in their qualifying group withdrew. However, India themselves withdrew from the tournament shortly before it began; officially, this was due to travel costs, but FIFA had offered to pay the team's travel expenses, and the real reason behind their withdrawal has been widely speculated in the decades since. While it was commonly believed that India withdrew due to FIFA's ban on playing barefoot, the team's captain at that time, Sailen Manna, insisted that this was not the case; it is now generally accepted that India withdrew simply because they valued the Olympics more than the World Cup and did not view the latter is being prestigious enough to justify taking part. Since then, India have yet to qualify for another World Cup.

Despite not participating in the World Cup in 1950 and opting not to even play the Asian zone qualifiers until 1985, the following years until 1964 are usually considered to be the "golden era" of the Indian football. India, coached by Hyderabad City Police head coach Syed Abdul Rahim, became one of the best teams in Asia. In March 1951, Rahim led India to their first ever triumph during the 1951 Asian Games, hosted in India. The team defeated Iran 1–0 in the gold medal match to win their first trophy. Sahu Mewalal scored the winning goal for India in that match. The following year, India competed in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, but were unused to the cold conditions and lost 10–1 to Yugoslavia. Following this defeat, the AIFF made it mandatory for footballers to wear boots. After taking the defeat in Helsinki Finland, India participated in various minor tournaments, such as the Colombo Cup, which they won four times from 1952 to 1955.

In 1954, India returned to the Asian Games as defending champions in Manila. Despite their achievement three years prior, India was unable to go past the group stage as the team finished second in Group C during the tournament, two points behind Indonesia. Two years later, at the 1956 Summer Olympics, India went on to achieve the team's greatest result in a competitive tournament. The team finished in fourth place during the Summer Olympics football tournament, losing the bronze-medal match to Bulgaria 3–0. The tournament is also known for Neville D'Souza's hat-trick against Australia in the quarterfinals. D'Souza's hat-trick was the first scored by an Asian in Olympic history. India defeated Australia by 4–2 in that match at the Olympic Park Stadium.

After their good performance during the Summer Olympics, India participated in the 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo. The team once again finished fourth, losing the bronze-medal match to Indonesia 4–1. The next year the team travelled to Malaysia where they took part in the 1959 Merdeka tournament and finished as the tournament runners-up.

India began the 1960s with the 1960 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. Despite the qualifiers for the West Zone being held in Kochi, India finished last in their qualification group and thus missed out the tournament. Despite the set-back, India went on to win the gold medal during the Asian Games for the second time in 1962. The team defeated South Korea 2–1 to win their second major championship.

Two years later, following their Asian Games triumph, India participated in the 1964 AFC Asian Cup after all the other teams in their qualification group withdrew. Despite their automatic entry into the continental tournament, India team managed to finish as the runners-up during the tournament, losing out to the hosts, Israel, by two points. This remains India's best performance in the AFC Asian Cup.

Decline (1970s–2000)

India returned to the Asian Games in 1966. Despite their performance two years prior during the AFC Asian Cup, India could not go beyond the group stage as the team finished third, behind Japan and Iran. Four years later, during the 1970 Asian Games, India came back and took third place during the tournament. The team defeated Japan 1–0 during the bronze-medal match.

In 1974, India's performance in the Asian Games once again sharply declined as they finished the 1974 edition in last place in their group, losing all three matches, scoring two, and conceding 14 goals in the first round. India then showed steady improvement during the 1978 tournament, finishing second in their group of three. The team were then knocked-out in the next round, finishing last in their group with three defeats from three matches. The 1982 tournament proved to be better for India as the side managed to qualify for the quarter-finals before losing to Saudi Arabia 1–0.

In 1984, India managed to qualify for the AFC Asian Cup for the first time since their second place triumph in 1964. During the 1984 tournament, India finished in last place in their five team group in the first round. India's only non-defeat during the tournament came against Iran, a 0–0 draw.

Despite India's decline from a major football power in Asia, the team still managed to assert its dominance as the top team in South Asia. India managed to win the football competition of the South Asian Games in 1985 and then again won the gold medal in 1987. The team then began the 1990s by winning the inaugural SAFF Championship in 1993 and silver medal at the 1993 South Asian Games. In February 1996, India achieved its highest FIFA ranking of 94, under Bhaichung Bhutia's captaincy. The team ended the 20th century by winning the SAFF Championship again in 1997 and 1999.

Resurgence (2001–2011)

India's first competitive matches of the 21st century were the 2002 FIFA World Cup first round qualifiers. India took a very bright start, defeating the United Arab Emirates 1–0, drawing Yemen 1–1, as well as two victories over Brunei, including a 5–0 victory in Bangalore. However, they finished a point away from qualification for the next round. In 2003, India took part in the 2003 SAFF Championship. The team qualified for the semi-finals but fell to Bangladesh 2–1.

Later in 2003, India participated in the Afro-Asian Games being held in Hyderabad. Under the coaching of Stephen Constantine, India managed to make it to the final of the tournament after defeating Zimbabwe, a team ranked 85 places above India in the FIFA rankings at the time, 5–3. Despite the major victory, during the gold-medal match India were defeated 1–0 by Uzbekistan. Because of this achievement, Constantine was voted as the Asian Football Confederation's Manager of the Month for October 2003. The tournament result also gave India more recognition around the country and around the world.

Constantine was replaced by Syed Nayeemuddin in 2005 but the Indian head coach only lasted for a little over a year as India suffered many heavy defeats during the 2007 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. During this time India were defeated 6–0 by Japan, 3–0 by Saudi Arabia and Yemen respectively at home, and 7–1 away in Jeddah. Former Malmö and China coach Bob Houghton was brought in as head coach in May 2006.

Under Houghton, India witnessed massive improvement in their football standing. In August 2007, Houghton won the country the restarted Nehru Cup after India defeated Syria 1–0 in the final. Pappachen Pradeep scored the winning goal for India that match. The next year, Houghton led India during the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup, which was hosted in Hyderabad and Delhi. During the tournament, India breezed through the group stage before defeating Myanmar in the semi-finals. In the final against Tajikistan, India, through a Sunil Chhetri hat-trick, won the match 4–1. The victory not only earned India the championship but it also allowed India to qualify for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, the nation's first Asian Cup appearance in 27 years. In order to prepare for the Asian Cup, Houghton had the team stay together as a squad for eight months from June 2010 until the start of the tournament, meaning the players would not play for their clubs.

India were drawn into Group C for the Asian Cup with Australia, South Korea, and Bahrain. Even though they stayed together as a team for eight months, India lost all three of their matches during the Asian Cup, including a 4–0 defeat to Australia. Despite the results, India were praised by fans and pundits for their valiant efforts during the tournament.

Recent history (2011–2018)

After participating the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, India's campaign to qualify for the 2015 Asian Cup began in February 2011 with the AFC Challenge Cup qualifiers. Bob Houghton decided to change the makeup of the India squad, replacing many of the older players from the Asian Cup with some young players from the AIFF development side in the I-League, Indian Arrows. Even with a young side, India managed to qualify for the AFC Challenge Cup. Despite qualifying for the AFC Challenge Cup, the AIFF decided to terminate the contract of Bob Houghton as he was charged with racial abuse towards referee which ultimately resulted in his resignation as the head coach of India.

After having Dempo coach Armando Colaco as interim head coach, the AIFF signed Savio Medeira as head coach in October 2011. Medeira led India to another SAFF Championship victory, but also to their worst performance in the AFC Challenge Cup in March 2012. The team lost all three of their group matches, unable to score a single goal during the tournament. After the tournament, Medeira was replaced as head coach by Dutchman, Wim Koevermans. Koevermans' first job as head coach was the 2012 Nehru Cup. India won their third successive Nehru Cup, defeating Cameroon on penalties.

In March 2013, India failed to qualify for the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup and thus also failed to qualify for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup. The team also failed to retain the SAFF Championship, losing 2–0 to Afghanistan in the 2013 final. After more bad results in friendlies, Koevermans resigned as head coach in October 2014.

By March 2015, after not playing any matches, India reached their lowest FIFA ranking position of 173. A couple months prior, Stephen Constantine was re-hired as the head coach after first leading India more than a decade before. Constantine's first major assignment back as the India head coach were the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers. After making it through the first round of qualifiers, India crashed out during the second round, losing seven of their eight matches and thus, once again, failed to qualify for the World Cup.

Despite failure to qualify for the World Cup, India managed to reach the third round of 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers after defeating Laos in the play-off round on aggregate 7–1. On 11 October 2017, India secured qualification for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup after a 4–1 victory over Macau. In 2017, India remained undefeated by drawing two and winning seven games, which helped the team to reach 96 in the FIFA ranking in May, which is its second highest FIFA rank ever.

Though defeated at the 2018 SAFF Championship final 1–2 against Maldives in September 2018, India regained the momentum with some friendlies against China, Jordan and Oman as they began the 2019 AFC Asian Cup with a 4–1 victory against Thailand; this was their biggest ever win at the Asia Cup, and their first in 55 years. Nevertheless, they lost both of their next two group matches against UAE and Bahrain 0−2 and 0−1 respectively and finished at the bottom of the group, thus failed to move to knock out stage. Stephen Constantine immediately resigned from his position as head coach following the failure to progress further in the tournament.

Igor Stimac era (2019–present)

On 15 May 2019, the AIFF announced former Croatian player and coach Igor Štimac as the team's head coach after the departure of Stephen Constantine. His first major assignment with India was 2022 World Cup qualification, where it began with a 1–2 home loss to Oman. But in the second match they earned a respectable point after managing a goalless draw against the 2019 Asian Champion and 2022 FIFA World Cup host Qatar. However, in the third match, the home leg against Bangladesh saw them managing a disappointing 1−1 draw. A similar result was repeated in the away leg against Afghanistan. In the away leg, India lost yet again to Oman by a solitary goal, thus shortening their hopes to qualify for the next round. After several postponements due to COVID-19, the team finally flew to Doha to play their remainder of games. In the return leg against Qatar, India went down to the hosts with a single goal and got knocked out of the World Cup qualification tournament with two games to spare. The team then made a comeback by winning their next match against Bangladesh 2–0, and ended their campaign with a 1–1 draw against Afghanistan. With seven points in total, India finished third on the table behind Qatar and Oman, thus getting eliminated from the World Cup during the second round. However they were qualified into the third round of 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification.

In the third round of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification, India was drawn in the same group with Afghanistan, Hong Kong and Cambodia. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India was chosen as the host of the group of the qualifiers while the qualification was reduced into a single round robin format. Using this home advantage, India was able to top the group with three wins against Cambodia (2–0), Afghanistan (2–1) and Hong Kong (4–0), therefore for the first time, India qualified for two consecutive AFC Asian Cups in history. In September 2022, India participated for the first time in the VFF Cup where they played two friendly matches, a 1–1 draw against Singapore and a 3–0 defeat by Vietnam, ending their year . In 2023, India began their campaign by winning the 2023 Tri-Nation Series and the 2023 Intercontinental Cup, both were organized by AIFF. India beat Myanmar 1–0 and Kyrgyzstan 2–0 in the Tri-Nation series, and defeated Lebanon 2–0 in the final of Intercontinental Cup to win the title for the second time. Following the Tri-Nation Series and the Intercontinental Cup, India won the 2023 SAFF championship, their third title in the year 2023 at home soil. India defeated Pakistan 4–0 and Nepal 2–0 and drawn 1–1 against Kuwait in the group stage. After defeating Lebanon in penalty shoot-out in the semi–finals, India faced Kuwait again in the tournament for the final. The match was tied 1–1 till the added time and eventually India defeated Kuwait in the penalty shoot-out to lift the SAFF Cup for a record nine times. Sunil Chhetri was the highest goal scorer of the edition with 5 goals, including a hat-trick against Pakistan, his fourth for the national team. With this hat-trick, he scored 92 goals becoming the second-highest international goalscorer from Asia of all time. His tally of 92 put him as the fourth-highest goalscorer in the history of international football.

Heading to the 2023 AFC Asian Cup tournament, India was the only national team without any friendly match as preparation. India ended up losing all matches in the group stage against Australia (0–2), Uzbekistan (0–3), and Syria (0–1), without scoring any goals as well.