After reaching the knockout stages of Euro 2016, Iceland defeated England in the Round of 16, advancing to the quarter-finals, where they lost to host nation France 5–2.

[8][9] Although Úrvalsdeild, the Icelandic Football League, was founded in 1912,[10] the country's first international match was played on 29 July 1930, against the Faroe Islands.

[14] For the first 20 years of the Football Association of Iceland (KSÍ)'s existence, the team mostly did not participate in qualifying for the FIFA World Cup or the UEFA European Championship.

The reasons for the lack of results of the selection were due to the absence of professionals on the island, the Icelanders played soccer for fun.

Moreover, the hostile climate where winter lasts 8 months did not help the development of the sport, there were only two synthetic fields forcing the footballers to train on the gravel or in the snow.

The economic boom will allow the authorities to create important structures with indoor pitches in synthetic turf, which results in the practice of soccer all year round without worrying about the weather conditions outside.

Iceland lost both confrontations against Les Bleus (4–0 at the Stade de France and 1–0 at home on a penalty kick after the hour of play at the end of a tight game) and the away match against Albania 4–2, though achieved a win and a draw against Turkey.

On 12 November 2020, in their playoff game against Hungary, Iceland nearly secured qualification for Euro 2020, having led 1–0 for most of the match, thanks to a direct free kick by Gylfi Sigurðsson.

[47] Iceland also had a poor start to 2022 World Cup qualifiers, suffering two defeats at the beginning of the tournament, away against Germany (0–3) and Armenia (0–2).

Despite these results, along with an away draw against Romania (0–0), Iceland was mathematically eliminated with one day remaining, being unable to recover enough points to reach second place.

This run of poor results has been attributed to several factors, both sporting and extra-sporting: the late generational renewal, a process partly hampered by a limited pool of footballers due to Iceland's demographics; the questionable tactical choices of the new coach, resulting in a lack of automatism among new players who are not used to playing together and the absence of a real standard team; and sexual assault scandals that have effectively sidelined some of the team's best players under investigation.

Following a long series of poor results, Icelandic coach Arnar Viðarsson was sacked[53] and replaced by Norwegian Åge Hareide.

First, Strákarnir okkar lost to the Slovaks (1–2) after a crude defensive error with a direct clearance to Tomáš Suslov, who scored Slovakia's 2nd goal when the teams were level.

Iceland then put in a better performance than in their previous matches against group favourites Portugal, demonstrating excellent tactical organization and keeping the Lusitanians at bay for long periods.

Iceland finished 4th in their group with a disappointing record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 6 defeats, but were eligible for the play-offs thanks to their performance in the Nations League.

Win Draw Loss Fixture The following players were selected for the UEFA Nations League games on 16 and 19 November 2024 against  Montenegro and  Wales, respectively.

[62] On 9 November 2024, Kolbeinn Finnsson and Daníel Leó Grétarsson withdrew from the squad due to injury and were replaced by Hlynur Freyr Karlsson and Dagur Dan Þórhallsson.

[63] On 11 November 2024, Hlynur Freyr Karlsson and Mikael Anderson also withdrew from the squad due to injury and were replaced by Rúnar Þór Sigurgeirsson and Andri Baldursson.