Spanish national soccer team (U-21 men)

Spain U21
España Sub 21

Nickname (s)	Toros Rojos, Hispanos
Association	Real Federación Española de Fútbol (RFEF)
confederacy	UEFA
Technical sponsor	adidas
Head coach	Luis de la Fuente (since 2018)
Record scorer	Gerard Deulofeu (17)
Record player	Gerard Deulofeu (35)
FIFA code	ESP
home Away
statistics
First international match Yugoslavia 4-1 Spain ( Zagreb , Croatia ; October 9, 1976)
Biggest win Spain 14-0 San Marino ( El Ejido , Spain ; February 8, 2005)
Biggest defeat Netherlands 5-0 Spain ( Utrecht , Netherlands ; February 16, 1983)
Successes in tournaments
European Championship
Participation in the finals	14 ( first : 1982 )
Best results	European champion 1986 , 1998 , 2011 , 2013 , 2019
(As of July 2019)

The Spanish U-21 national soccer team is a selection team of Spanish soccer players . It is subject to the Royal Spanish Football Federation and represents him on the U-21 level , in friendly matches against the national teams of other national associations, but also at the European Championships of the continental federation UEFA and the Football World Cup of FIFA . Players who have not yet reached the age of 21 and who are Spanish citizens are eligible to play. In tournaments, the age at the first qualifying game is decisive.

European championships

1980 to 1986: Development under Luis Suárez

The Spanish U-21 selection has so far qualified for the European Championship finals nine times. The team made it to the final of the competition five times, but this time they won twice. The first title came in 1986 in the game against Italy . After it had been 3: 3 after the first and second leg, the penalty shoot-out had to decide. The Spaniards won this 3-1.

In 1982 the Spanish U-21 national team made it to the European Championship for the first time. In group 8, the Iberians had to deal with the teams from the Netherlands and Luxembourg . After two wins in each leg, the team safely qualified for the quarter-finals , where they met Germany . After a 1-0 first leg success, the Spaniards failed in the second encounter with 0-2 and were eliminated.

1988 to 1998: Several times participation in the European Championship and second title win

At the final for the European Championship trophy in 1998 they faced the team from Greece and prevailed 1-0. Later top players such as Guti , Michel Salgado , Juan Carlos Valerón and Roger García Junyent were able to make a name for themselves during the tournament . Iván Pérez Muñoz scored the decisive goal in the final .

1998 to 2009: Development in the new millennium

In qualifying for the 2006 European Championship , the Spaniards were drawn in Group 7 along with Belgium , Serbia , Bosnia-Herzegovina , Lithuania and San Marino . Here the southern Europeans were considered favorites to make it into the final round. After they started well in the first game, there was a setback in the two subsequent games against Lithuania and Belgium and the Spanish offspring did not get past two draws. On February 8, 2005, against San Marino, they made away with a 14-0 victory the disappointment over the previous point loss. It was the highest victory in the history of the U-21 national team. This euphoria did not last long after the first defeat on matchday five of qualifying. With 0: 1, the Spaniards left the place as losers against Serbia. Then the team started a series of three wins in a row and established itself in the top field of the table. Due to another defeat against the Belgian team on October 7, 2005, the team had to rely on support from Lithuania, which played against Serbia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, against Belgium, three days later, on the last day of qualification to reach one of the first two places that qualify for participation in the final round. But neither Serbia nor the Belgians presented themselves naked and won their games.

Since the next European Championship after the EM in 2006 did not take place two years later, as usual, but took place in 2007 , the corresponding qualification was played out in a rapid process. Starting with a preliminary round, over a short group stage with three teams and the play-off games. Spain needed to get into the group stage first. The teams from Albania and Slovakia were drawn. There was only one game against each team, so the teams had one away and one home rights. The Spaniards survived both games without much effort. In the following round, however, they were eliminated against Italy after a 0-0 and a 2-1 defeat in front of their home crowd.

After five missed qualifications, it should work again for EM 2009 . By luck the Spaniards got an easy group and won all eight games of the qualification and thus moved into the play-off round without losing points. The team conceded only two goals. In the second round, Switzerland were the opponent. After a 1: 2 defeat on October 11, 2008, the team was under pressure in the second leg. They caught up with the result and after 90 minutes it was 2: 1 for the southern Europeans. For this reason, the extension had to be decided. The Spaniards won this and moved back to the finals of the U-21 European Championship after nine years. There the team finally failed in the preliminary round to the two later finalists England and Germany and was eliminated as third in Group B from the tournament.

2010 to today: Current development

Two years later, the team took part in the European Championship in Denmark. Without a defeat, the team was first in their group and so moved into the semifinals of the competition, where they met the Belarusian team . After they took the lead in the first half, Adrián López only equalized in the 89th minute, bringing his team into extra time, where they finally prevailed 3-1. In the final encounter, national coach Luis Milla's team then played against Switzerland . The Spaniards won this game 2-0 and won the cup for the first time since 1998. In addition, Thiago was named the best player in the final game.

With Adrián López , the Spaniards also provided the best attacker of the tournament. The striker scored a total of five goals and thus secured the award of the Golden Shoe .

Participation in U-21 European Championships

1978	not qualified
1980	not qualified
1982	Quarter finals
1984	2nd place
1986	winner
1988	Quarter finals
1990	Quarter finals
1992	not qualified
1994 in France	3rd place
1996 in Spain	2nd place
1998 in Romania	winner
2000 in Slovakia	3rd place
2002 in Switzerland	not qualified
2004 in Germany	not qualified
2006 in Portugal	not qualified
2007 in the Netherlands	not qualified
2009 in Sweden	Preliminary round
2011 in Denmark	winner
2013 in Israel	winner
2015 in the Czech Republic	not qualified
2017 in Poland	2nd place
2019 in Italy	winner

Note : Between 1978 and 1992, the final round of a U-21 European Championship was not played in one country, but instead was played back and forth in the respective participating nations.

Former and well-known players

(Selection)

• Ignacio Camacho Barnola
• Daniel Jarque
• Javi Martínez
• Fran Mérida
• Sergio Ramos
• Jonathan Soriano
• Fernando Torres
• Andrés Iniesta

Coach history

Name of the trainer	Period	comment
José Santamaría	1978-1980
Luis Suarez	1980-1988	• 1986 European Champion
Jesús María Pereda	1988-1992
Andoni Goikoetxea Olaskoaga	1992-1996
Iñaki Sáez	1996-2002	• 1998 European Champion
José Ufarte Juan Santisteban	2002-2004
Iñaki Sáez	2004-2008
Juan Ramón López Caro	2008-2010
Luis Milla	2010–2012	• European Champion 2011
Julen Lopetegui	2012-2014	• 2013 European Champion
Albert Celades	2014-2018
Luis de la Fuente	2018–	• European Champion 2019

See also

• Soccer in Spain
• U-21 European Football Championship

Web links

Commons : Spanish National Football Team (U-21 Men)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Spanish national team (Spanish, English)
• Official website of the Spanish Federation (Spanish)
• Profile on uefa.com
• Profile on weltfussball.de

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 1998: Iván Pérez lets Spain cheer on uefa.com
2. ↑ Matchday 5 - Saturday 25 June 2011: Switzerland 0-2 Spain on uefa.com.
3. ↑ Squad: Spain - UEFA European Under-21 Championship on uefa.com.
4. ↑ Spain striker Adrián wins adidas Golden Boot from June 25, 2011 on uefa.com