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The Peru national football team (Spanish: Selección de fútbol del Perú), nicknamed la Bicolor, represents Peru in men's international football. The national team has been organised, since 1927, by the Federación Peruana de Fútbol (English: Peruvian Football Federation). It has been a member of FIFA since 1924 and a member of CONMEBOL since 1925. It was also a member of PFC, the attempt at a unified confederation of the Americas from 1946 to 1961.
Peru has won the Copa América twice, and has qualified for the FIFA World Cup five times (last appearing in 2018); the team also participated in the 1936 Olympic football competition and has reached the semi-finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. The team plays most of its home matches at the Estadio Nacional in Lima, the country's capital.
The team wears distinctive white shirts adorned with a diagonal red stripe, which combine Peru's national colours. This basic design has been used continuously since 1936, and gives rise to the team's common Spanish nickname, la Blanquirroja ("the white-and-red"). Peruvian football fans are known for their distinctive cheer ¡Arriba Perú! ("Onward Peru!") and large celebrations. Peru has a longstanding rivalry with Chile.
The Peru national team enjoyed its most successful periods thanks to footballing generations from the 1930s and the 1970s. The 1930s generation led Peru at the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930 and won the 1938 Bolivarian Games and the 1939 South American Championship, with goalkeeper Juan Valdivieso and forwards Teodoro Fernández and Alejandro Villanueva playing important roles. The 1970s generation qualified Peru for three World Cups and won the Copa América in 1975; the team then notably included defender Héctor Chumpitaz and the forward partnership of Hugo Sotil and Teófilo Cubillas. Teodoro Fernández and Teófilo Cubillas are both often considered Peru's greatest player in history.
The national team's all-time top goalscorer is Paolo Guerrero, with 40 goals, and its most-capped players is Yoshimar Yotún with 138 appearances. Since January 2026, Peru is managed by Mano Menezes.
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During the 19th century, British immigrants and Peruvians returning from England introduced football to Peru. In 1859, members of the British community in the country's capital founded the Lima Cricket Club, Peru's first organisation dedicated to the practice of cricket, rugby, and football. These new sports became popular among the local upper-class over the following decades, but early developments stopped due to the War of the Pacific that Peru fought against Chile from 1879 to 1883. After the war, Peru's coastal society embraced football as a modern innovation. In Lima's barrios, football became a popular daily activity, encouraged by bosses who wanted it to inspire solidarity and productivity among their workers. In the adjacent port of Callao and other commercial areas, British civilian workers and sailors played the sport among themselves and with locals. Sports rivalries between locals and foreigners arose in Callao, and between elites and workers in Lima—as foreigners departed, this became a rivalry between Callao and Lima. These factors, coupled with the sport's rapid growth among the urban poor of Lima's La Victoria district (where, in 1901, the Alianza Lima club formed), led to Peru developing the Andean region's strongest footballing culture, and, according to historian Andreas Campomar, "some of the most elegant and accomplished football on the continent".
The Peruvian Football League, founded in 1912, held annual competitions until it disbanded in 1921 amid disputes amongst its clubs. The Peruvian Football Federation (FPF), formed in 1922, reorganised the annual tournament in 1926. The FPF joined the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) in 1925 and, after restructuring its finances, formed the Peru national football team in 1927. The team debuted in the 1927 South American Championship, hosted by the FPF at Lima's Estadio Nacional. Peru lost 0–4 against Uruguay in its first match, and won 3–2 over Bolivia in its second. Peru did not advance beyond the first stage of the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930.
The 1930s were the team's first golden era, when they improved their game through play with more experienced teams. The Combinado del Pacífico (a squad composed of Chilean and Peruvian footballers) toured Europe from 1933 to 1934. Starting with Ciclista Lima in 1926, Peru's football clubs toured Latin America with much success. During one of these tours—Alianza Lima's undefeated journey through Chile in 1935—emerged the Rodillo Negro ("Black Roller"), a skillful group led by forwards Alejandro Villanueva, Teodoro Fernández and goalkeeper Juan Valdivieso. Sports historian Richard Witzig described these three as "a soccer triumvirate unsurpassed in the world at that time", citing their combined innovation and effectiveness at both ends of the field. Peru and the Rodillo Negro impressed at the 1936 Summer Olympics, won the inaugural Bolivarian Games in 1938, and finished the decade as South American champions.
Historian David Goldblatt assessed the decline of its previous success: "despite all the apparent preconditions for footballing growth and success, Peruvian football disappeared". He attributes this sudden decline to Peruvian authorities' repression of "social, sporting and political organisations among the urban and rural poor" during the 1940s and 1950s. Nevertheless, Peru performed creditably at the South American Championships, placing third in Brazil 1949 and Chile 1955, and missed qualification for the Sweden 1958 World Cup finals, over two legs to eventual champions Brazil.
Successes during the late 1960s, including qualification for the 1970 FIFA World Cup finals in Mexico, ushered in a second golden period for Peruvian football. The formidable forward partnership between Teófilo Cubillas and Hugo Sotil was a key factor in Peru's triumphs during the 1970s. Peru reached the quarter-finals in 1970, losing to the tournament winners Brazil, and earned the first FIFA Fair Play Trophy; historian Richard Henshaw describes Peru as "the surprise of the 1970 competition, showing flair and a high level of skill". Five years later, Peru became South American champions for the second time when it won the 1975 Copa América (the then-rechristened South American Championship) despite failing to qualify for West Germany 1974 a year earlier. The team next qualified for two consecutive World Cup finals, reaching the second round in Argentina 1978 and the first group stage in Spain 1982. Peru's early elimination in 1982 marked the end of the side's globally-admired "flowing football". Peru, nonetheless, barely missed the Mexico 1986 World Cup finals after placing second in a qualification group to eventual champions Argentina. In their golden period from 1970 to 1982, Peru was among the best teams in the world.
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