The Malawi national football team, nicknamed The Flames, is the national team of Malawi and is controlled by the Football Association of Malawi. Before 1966 they were known as the Nyasaland national football team. They have never qualified for the World Cup finals and have thrice qualified for the Africa Cup of Nation finals in 1984 , 2010 and mostly recently in 2021.

AFCON 2021

At the 2021 Finals in Cameroun the Flames made history by making it to the round stage for the first time.

The Flames made it to the Round of 16 knockout stage after finishing as one of the four third best losers.

Flames collected four points in the group stages after beating Zimbabwe 2-1, losing 1-0 to Guinea and holding Senegal 0-0.

The Flames faced Morocco in the last 16 on January 23 and lost 2-1.

Striker Gabadinho Mhango scored all the three Flames and became the first Malawi player to score a brace at the AFCON after his two goals against Zimbabwe. His scorcher in the Morocco
game made him the Flames the all-time AFCON finals leading scorer.

The team collected four points in the group stages the most at AFCON after managing just 3 points and a point in 2010 and 1984 respectively.

Vice-captain John Banda, Dennis Chembezi and Gomezgani Chirwa played every minute of
the Flames campaign.