In 1994, Macedonia became a member of FIFA and UEFA after the break-up of SFR Yugoslavia. The team began its football journey with a 4–1 win against Slovenia in a friendly on 13 October 1993 under coach Andon Dončevski. They went on to win their next two friendlies against Slovenia and Estonia before suffering their first loss against Turkey on 31 August 1994 (before this they lost to Club Atlético Peñarol 0–4 in Montevideo in February 1994). The inaugural Macedonian side featured Darko Pančev, who won the European Champions League with Red Star Belgrade in 1991 and also played for Internazionale in Italy.The Macedonia national football team (Macedonian: Фудбалска репрезентација на Македонија, Fudbalska reprezentacija na Makedonija) is the national football team of the Republic of Macedonia and is controlled by the Football Federation of Macedonia. The venue for home games is the Philip II Arena in Skopje.

On 12 August 2009, as part of the 100-year anniversary of football in Macedonia, the national team played a friendly match against the current European champions Spain. Star player Goran Pandev scored two goals in the first half to give Macedonia a 2–0 lead before Spain scored three goals in the second half to record the 3–2 victory in front of a record crowd of 30,000 at the renovated Philip II Arena.^[1]