The Thailand soccer team is one of the leading football teams in Southeast Asia. Since its inception 94 years ago, the national soccer team of Thailand has won the ASEAN Football Championship a total of three times as well as 12 Southeast Asian Games titles.

Former England and Manchester United captain is currently in charge of the Thailand soccer team, having replaced former manager Peter Reid in October, 2009.

The Thailand soccer team was established in the middle of 1915 and was then referred to as the Siam national soccer team. The team’s debut match was staged in December of the same year when the War Elephants took to the field at the Royal Bangkok Sport Club Stadium against The Europeans.

15 years later, the Thailand soccer team took part in their first ever international match, when they travelled to Indochina to take on the home team at a seven-day tournament.

The national soccer team was known as the Siam national football team for a further 19 years, when, in 1949, it became the Thailand football team as the country itself was renamed.

Seven years after being renamed, the Thai soccer team made it through to the finals of an international tournament for the first time when they qualified for the football tournament at the 1956 Olympic Games held in Melbourne, Australia.

The national team’s delight at making its debut on a world stage was cut short when the team was handed a 9-0 thrashing by Great Britain, which remains the War Elephant’s biggest ever defeat.

Just under a decade later, the Thai soccer team collected its maiden international trophy when it won gold at the South East Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The War Elephants qualified for their second and last Olympic Games tournament to date in Mexico in 1968, but were knocked out of the competition in the first round after losing all three group matches, netting just one goal and conceding 19.

The Thailand Football Association falls under the umbrella of the Asian Football Confederation which has staged the AFC Asian Cup 13 times since 1956 and now stages a tournament every four years. The Thai soccer team’s most successful tournament was in 1972 when Thailand hosted the competition where they finished third even though the team didn’t win any of their five matches.

The team plays all of its full home internationals at the Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok, which can hold up to 60,000 fans.

The Thai soccer team wears an all-yellow kit, which it adopted in 2007 to commemorate His Majesty the King’s 80th birthday. The team used to take to the field in an all-red kit and adopts a fully blue kit for away matches.

Former Thai international Tawan Sripan has made the most appearances for the Thailand soccer, winning 145 caps in an international career that spanned 15 years. He also scored 23 goals in that time.

Thai soccer star Piyapong Piew-on is Thailand’s leading goal scorer and one of the most prolific strikers in international football history, In his 16 year career in international football Piyapong scored 103 goals in just 129 matches.

The Thailand soccer team is currently ranked number 103 according to Fifa rankings.