Spain national under-21 football team

Spain Under-21

Nickname(s)	La Roja (The Reds)
Association	Real Federación Española de Fútbol
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	López Caro (2008–)
Most caps	Santi Denia (27)
Top scorer	Óscar García (12)
FIFA code	ESP
Home colours Away colours
First international
U-23:  Yugoslavia 3-0  Spain (Novi Sad; June 18, 1969) U-21: Yugoslavia 4-1  Spain (Zagreb; October 9, 1976)
Biggest win
Spain 14-0  San Marino (El Ejido; February 8, 2005)
Biggest defeat
Netherlands 5-0  Spain (Utrecht; February 16, 1983) Records for competitive matches only.
UEFA U-21 Championship
Appearances	10 (First in 1982)
Best result	Winners (1986, 1998)

The Spain national under-21 football team, is the national under-21 football team of Spain and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation, the Real Federación Española de Fútbol. The team competes in the European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years.

Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the Spanish Under-21 team was formed. The team has a very good record - competition winners twice and runners-up twice. Only Italy have won the competition more times.

Since the under-21 competition rules insist that players must be 21 or under at the start of a two year competition, technically it is an U-23 competition. For this reason, Spain's brief record in the preceding U-23 competitions is also shown. Actually, Spain played only three competitive U-23 matches. The first was in the "Under-23 Challenge", which they lost. The next two were in a two-team qualification "group" for the 1972 competition - facing the Soviet Union team, they lost 2–1 at home then drew 1–1 away and failed to qualify. Spain did not enter a team in the other two U-23 competitions, but have been ever present in under-21 competitions.

Spain's youth development programs has been challenging the South American dominance in the FIFA U-17 World Championship and the FIFA U-20 World Cup. In fact, 20 of the Spanish 23-man squad that won the Euro 2008 came through the ranks of the youth teams; most of them had won titles at the youth level as well.

Competitive Record

UEFA U-23 Championship Record

Spain were randomly chosen to play holders Yugoslavia for the title in a one-off match, which Spain lost.

• 18 June 1969: Yugoslavia 3-0 Spain
• 1972: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 2 in qualification "group".
• 1974: Did not enter.
• 1976: Did not enter.

UEFA European Under-21 Championship Record

Year	Round	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1978	Qualifying Stage	4	2	0	2	5	8
1980	Qualifying Stage	4	1	2	1	4	2
1982	Quarter Finals	6	5	0	1	14	5
1984	Runners-up	10	5	2	3	11	11
1986	Champions	10	7	1	2	18	9
1988	Quarter Finals	8	4	2	2	10	4
1990	Quarter Finals	6	4	0	2	5	4
1992	Qualifying Stage	7	3	2	2	6	5
1994	Third Place	12	9	2	1	21	9
1996	Runners-up	14	10	3	1	34	14
1998	Champions	11	10	1	0	21	6
2000	Third Place	14	11	3	0	31	7
2002	Qualification Playoffs	10	6	1	3	15	9
2004	Qualification Playoffs	10	6	2	2	17	5
2006	Qualifying Stage	10	6	2	2	37	8
2007	Qualification Playoffs	4	2	1	1	8	4
2009	Group Stage	13	10	1	2	27	7
2011	Qualifying in progress	4	3	0	1	8	2
Total	10/17	157	104	25	28	292	119

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.

• Gold background color indicates first place finish. Silver background color indicates second place finish. Bronze background color indicates third place finish.
• Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Individual awards

In addition to team victories, Spanish players have won individual awards at UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

Year	Golden Player
1986	Manuel Sanchís
1998	Francesc Arnau

Players

The most caps

Note: Club(s) represents the permanent clubs during the player's time in the Under-21s.

The most goals

Note: Club(s) represents the permanent clubs during the player's time in the Under-21s.

Recent results

Date	Competition	Location	Home Team	Result	Away Team	Scorers
4 September 2009	2011 UEFA U-21 Qualifying	Oviedo, Spain	Spain	2–0	Poland	Joselu  7', Parejo  58'
7 September 2009	2011 UEFA U-21 Qualifying	Vaduz, Liechtenstein	Liechtenstein	0–4	Spain	Parejo  15', Javi Martínez  23', Capel  82', Aarón  86'
13 November 2009	2011 UEFA U-21 Qualifying	Córdoba, Spain	Spain	1–0	Finland	Míchel  79'
17 November 2009	2011 UEFA U-21 Qualifying	Rotterdam, Netherlands	Netherlands	2–1	Spain	Azpilicueta  80'

Forthcoming fixtures

Date	Competition	Location	Home Team	Result	Away Team	Scorers
2 March 2010	2011 UEFA U-21 Qualifying	TBD, Spain	Spain	–	Liechtenstein
11 August 2010	2011 UEFA U-21 Qualifying	TBD, Finland	Finland	–	Spain
3 September 2010	2011 UEFA U-21 Qualifying	TBD, Spain	Spain	–	Netherlands
7 September 2010	2011 UEFA U-21 Qualifying	TBD, Poland	Poland	–	Spain

2011 UEFA European U-21 Qualification Group 4

Team v • d • e Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts  Netherlands 5 5 0 0 12 1 +11 15  Spain 4 3 0 1 8 2 +6 9  Poland 5 3 0 2 9 7 +2 9  Finland 5 1 0 4 5 6 –1 3  Liechtenstein 5 0 0 5 0 18 –18 0

Finland  – 0–1 Liechtenstein  0–4 – 0–5 0–4 Netherlands  2–0 3–0 – 2–1 Poland  2–1 2–0 0–4 – Spain  1–0 2–0 –

Key: Pts Points, Pld Matches played, W Won, D Drawn, L Lost, GF Goals for, GA Goals against, GD Goal Difference

Current squad

Players born in or after 1988 are eligible for the next UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.

The following players were called up to participate in a 2011 UEFA European Football Championship qualification against Finland and Netherlands. ^{[1] [2]}

• Caps and goals as of 17 November 2009.

No. Pos. Player DoB (Age) Caps Goals Club GK Sergio Asenjo 28 June 1989 (1989-06-28) (age 20) 14 0 Atlético Madrid GK David de Gea 7 November 1990 (1990-11-07) (age 19) 2 0 Atlético Madrid GK Tomás Mejías 30 January 1989 (1989-01-30) (age 20) 0 0 Real Madrid DF César Azpilicueta 28 August 1989 (1989-08-28) (age 20) 11 1 CA Osasuna DF Alberto Botía 27 January 1989 (1989-01-27) (age 20) 4 0 Sporting Gijón DF Roberto Canella 7 February 1988 (1988-02-07) (age 21) 7 0 Sporting Gijón DF Andreu Fontàs 14 November 1989 (1989-11-14) (age 20) 0 0 FC Barcelona DF Kiko 21 August 1988 (1988-08-21) (age 21) 4 0 Villarreal CF DF Víctor Laguardia 5 November 1989 (1989-11-05) (age 20) 2 0 Real Zaragoza MF Jordi Alba 21 March 1989 (1989-03-21) (age 20) 3 0 Valencia CF MF Diego Capel 16 February 1988 (1988-02-16) (age 21) 14 3 Sevilla FC MF Marcos Gullón 20 February 1989 (1989-02-20) (age 20) 3 0 Villarreal CF MF Ander Herrera 14 August 1989 (1989-08-14) (age 20) 3 0 Real Zaragoza MF Javi Martínez 2 September 1988 (1988-09-02) (age 21) 13 1 Athletic Bilbao MF Francisco Mérida 4 March 1990 (1990-03-04) (age 19) 3 0 Arsenal FC MF Míchel 29 July 1988 (1988-07-29) (age 21) 4 1 Valencia CF MF Daniel Parejo 16 April 1989 (1989-04-16) (age 20) 7 3 Getafe CF MF Omar Ramos 26 January 1988 (1988-01-26) (age 21) 1 0 CD Tenerife FW Joselu 27 March 1990 (1990-03-27) (age 19) 3 1 Celta de Vigo FW Kike 25 November 1989 (1989-11-25) (age 19) 0 0 Real Murcia FW Adrián López 8 January 1988 (1988-01-08) (age 21) 6 1 Deportivo La Coruña

References

See also

• Spain national football team
• Spain national under-20 football team
• Spain national under-19 football team
• Spain national under-17 football team
• Spain national youth football team
• UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship

External links

• siemprecantera (Spanish)
• Spanish under 21 at Soccer-Spain
• Tournament archive at uefa.com
• Europe - U-23/U-21 Tournaments at rsssf