Only one country has never played an international football match after Marshall Islands debut
The Marshall Islands finally made their international debut on Thursday against the US Virgin Islands - leaving only one nation to have never played an 11-a-side match.
The island country, which has a population of around 42,000 people, travelled to Arkansas, USA to take part in the four-team Outrigger Challenge Cup.
Funding for the trip was secured by a crowdfunding campaign and shirt sales worth a combined sum of over £20,000, assistant manager Justin Walley told the PA news agency.
The other teams involved in the competition are the Turks and Caicos Islands and Ozark United U19.
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A significant number of the Marshall Islands playing contingent live in the United States, with Arkansas containing the largest population of Marshallese players aside from the islands themselves.
The match ultimately ended in a 4-0 victory for the US Virgin Islands, who are a FIFA-affiliated nation and have played five recorded international matches since the start of 2024.
Of course, the bigger picture was the Marshall Islands making it onto the pitch in the first place, with technical director Lloyd Owers - who got involved with the island nation in 2022 - telling the BBC on Monday: "It's been eye-opening in the sense of where we started, with no football, and nothing in the country - to the extent that basic equipment just wasn't there.
"Fast forward on to where we are now, we've got all these weekly sessions, this coach education structure and worldwide recruitment for players and it's going in the right direction. It's unbelievable to be at this point now."
The Marshall Islands described itself as the last country on earth without an international football team, and its football association was only founded in 2020.
But after a wait of five years for their first match, they only have to wait two days for their second fixture as they take on Turks and Caicos Islands on Saturday.
Now, only one country in the world is yet to play a men's 11-a-side match at international level.
That is Nauru, the world's smallest island nation.
The microstate - which is far more renowned for playing rugby - has a population of just 12,000 people, though does have a relatively long history in football.
Nauru has played two matches but neither of them were at international level, with a representative team taking part in a 1994 friendly fixture against an XI of miners from the Solomon Islands.
And in 2014, a Nauru select XI took on a team of refugees to mark World Refugee Day.
Plans have been in place for the past two years for the island nation to play international football, but they have not come to fruition.
Englishman Charlie Pomroy was appointed to lead the project in 2023, emphasising the scale of the task when he told Forbes last year that the nation's one 'good quality' pitch was, at the time, situated inside a local prison.
Reading striker Dave Kitson is also involved in the project as the nation's head coach and football ambassador, and in 2024 attempted to arrange a friendly against Reading XL FC.
According to a survey conducted by the World Health Organisation, 69.9 per cent of adults in Nauru are classed as obese.
Kitson explained: "I'm a firm believer in leaving something in a better shape than how you found it. I hope we can do that.
"I want to help with the health and fitness of the people on the island, we want to implement a football programme that can get kids playing the sport."
Ryan Smart