Bhutan under-17s, much like the
senior side came to international football relatively late. Although formal competition organized by the continental federation for this age group only commenced in
1985, Bhutan did not take part until
2004 when they entered the qualification rounds for the
2004 AFC U-17 Championship following three consecutive withdrawals from the qualifying competition in
1998,
2000 and
2002. Following this somewhat stuttering entry into the international arena, they travelled to
Uzbekistan where their group games were to be played, but met with little success, failing to qualify and returning home without a point, or even scoring, losing 3–0 to
Sri Lanka and then 6–0 to hosts
Uzbekistan. but returned to continental competition two years later entering the qualifying rounds of the
2008 edition. This time the team travelled to
Saudi Arabia, where all their group's matches were to be played. Their break from international football had not helped the team progress, as they lost their opening two matches 4–0 to
Saudi Arabia and 1–0 to Sri Lanka. Their campaign got off to a terrible start, as they nearly eclipsed their unenviable record defeat suffered in the previous edition against Iraq, losing 10–0 in their opening match to
Syria. It looked as though Bhutan might hold on for a draw and their first ever positive result until Nababta scored his second of the game for Palestine in the eighty-third minute to claim all three points. and the six goal margin was a considerable improvement on the scoreline the last time the two teams met. However, for the third time in three attempts Bhutan returned home without a point, albeit the two goals they scored represented their best attacking performance in competition to that point. After missing the qualifying tournament for the
2012 AFC U-16 Championship, Bhutan's next foray into international football was the
second edition of the
SAFF U-16 Championship. Hosted by himalayan neighbour
Nepal, the team's first performance in a regional international competition was their best to date. Their opening match against
the hosts in the tournament's opening fixture at the
Dasarath Rangasala Stadium in
Kathmandu started promisingly as Bhutan went in at half time with the game scoreless. However they were unable to keep up their level of performance and conceded seven goals in the second half, with
Bimal Magar and his namesake Hemant Magar both scoring hat-tricks. They were unable to build on this draw in their final game, losing 3–1 to
Afghanistan Tenzin Shezang gave Bhutan the lead in the nineteenth minute although Afghanistan equalised through Atiqulallah Waziri to take the two teams into the break level. The remainder of the tournament was entirely forgettable for Bhutan. Their next match against
Tajikistan resulted in a record 12–0 defeat, Tajik forward Rustam Tolibov scored a hat trick in the first hour, only to be replaced by fellow forward Sobirdzhon Gulyakov, who went on to score a further four goals himself in the remaining thirty minutes. and 8–1 against
India. This meant that for the fourth time in four attempts, Bhutan not only failed to qualify for the competition proper, but returned home without a single point. The only positive note to take from the tournament was
Yoesel Dorji's goal against India meant that their three goals in total was their best ever attacking performance in any competition to date. ==Technical staff==