The Ivory Coast national football team nicknamed Les Éléphants (The Elephants), is the national team of Ivory Coast and is controlled by the Fédération Ivoirienne de Football. Until 2005, their greatest accomplishment was winning the 1992 African Cup of Nations against Ghana on penalties at the Stade de l'Amitie in Dakar, Senegal.
On 10 October 2009, Côte d'Ivoire secured a place at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa after Didier Drogba struck within two minutes of coming on as a substitute to clinch a 1–1 draw with Malawi.
On 8 October 2005, they qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, marking their first appearance on the World Cup finals stage. Côte d'Ivoire qualified through a tough qualifying group which included African powerhouses Cameroon and Egypt, despite losing home and away to the former. On the last day of qualification, they confirmed their spot with a 3–1 win over Sudan, while Cameroon faltered and could only manage a 1–1 draw at home to Egypt.
Côte d'Ivoire lost their opening game 2–1 in the 2006 World Cup in Germany to an Argentine side. The goals for Argentina came from Hernán Crespo and Javier Saviola. Côte d'Ivoire's goal came from Chelsea striker Didier Drogba. They lost their second match to the Netherlands by the same scoreline and were thus eliminated from the tournament. The Netherlands' goals came from a Robin van Persie free-kick in the 23rd minute and a Ruud van Nistelrooy strike in the 27th minute. Bakari Koné scored in the 38th minute for the Africans to pull the score to 2–1. Côte d'Ivoire's final game was against Serbia and Montenegro. The Serbian team scored two quick goals and it appeared that the Côte d'Ivoire was destined for a three-loss World Cup campaign. However, the Africans came back, led by two goals from Aruna Dindane, and won the game 3–2 to finish in third place in the group.