Football is the most popular sport in Colombia (according to FIFA, there are 3,043,229 players total, 291,229 of which are registered and 2,752,000 are unregistered; with 2,773 clubs and 15,800 officials).

[4] Among the individual notable players that have emerged from the country are René Higuita, creator of the "scorpion kick", Carlos Valderrama, Leonel Álvarez, Faustino Asprilla, Iván Córdoba, Mario Yepes, Radamel Falcao, Juan Cuadrado, James Rodríguez, and Luis Díaz.

[9] A match during this period in 1993 resulted in a 5–0 win over Argentina which caused a special "mutual respect" rivalry between both nations.

It was not until 1924 that the Colombian Football Federation was formed, initially under the name Liga de Fútbol, that gained the affiliation with FIFA and CONMEBOL in 1936.

[11] In 1948, a national league was created, known as División Mayor del Fútbol Colombiano, formed largely from the efforts of administrator Alfonso Senior Quevedo.

[11] Outside the remit of FIFA due to contract problems, the league recruited a number of leading players, such as Alfredo Di Stéfano, Neil Franklin and Charlie Mitten, and gained the nickname "El Dorado".

[15] In 1968, the league followed the pattern common in South America by splitting into two separate competitions per season, the Apertura (February to June) and the Finalización (July to December).

With 18 titles, Atlético Nacional is the team with the most trophies, followed by America de Cali and Millonarios with 15 both; All three are the most successful clubs domestically.

They returned to the tournament in 1990 and reached the second round with a team featuring the likes of Carlos Valderrama, Freddy Rincón, and René Higuita.

During qualification for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Colombia impressed with some exceptional results, not least a 5–0 away win over Argentina, the losing finalists in the previous tournament.

[17] However, the team were eliminated in the first round after Andrés Escobar scored a notorious own goal, an act for which an irate gambler shot him dead after his return home.

Their lack of participation also added for this sporadic support, and despite having qualified for the 1962 FIFA World Cup, the Colombian team remained underrated and under-achieved than the rest of South America, particularly to those of Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Paraguay outside traditional powers Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina, in spite of their youth football successes.