Spain national under-21 football team

Spain Under-21

Nickname(s)

La Rojita (The Little Red [One])

Association

Royal Spanish Football Federation

Confederation

UEFA (Europe)

Head coach

Albert Celades (2014–)

Most caps

Gerard Deulofeu (32)

Top scorer

Gerard Deulofeu (16)

FIFA code

ESP

First colours

Second colours

First international

Yugoslavia 4–1 Spain

(Zagreb, Yugoslavia; 9 October 1976)

Biggest win

Spain 14–0 San Marino

(El Ejido, Spain; 8 February 2005)

Biggest defeat

Netherlands 5–0 Spain
(Utrecht, Netherlands; 16 February 1983)

Records for competitive matches only.

UEFA U-21 Championship

Appearances

12 (first in 1982)

Best result

Winners (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013)

Medal record

Spain national under-21 football team
Medal record
U-21 European Championship
	1986	Team
	1998 Romania	Team
	2011 Denmark	Team
	2013 Israel	Team
	1984	Team
	1996 Spain	Team
	1994 France	Team
	2000 Slovakia	Team

The 2011 winning team

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 team, nicknamed La Rojita (The Little Red [One]),^[1] competes in the biennial UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the Spanish under-21 team was formed. Spain has a fantastic record (competition winners four times and runners-up twice); having consecutively won the 2011 and 2013 Championships. Only Italy with five titles has won the competition more often than Spain.

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, though in actuality, Spain played only three competitive U-23 matches. The first was in the "under-23 Challenge", which they lost, while 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 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	Champions	15	12	2	1	31	8
2013	Champions	15	14	1	0	47	5
2015	Qualification Playoffs	10	7	2	1	25	8
2017	Qualified to phase final	12	7	4	1	32	10
Total	13/21	205	141	34	30	419	148

*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	Manolo Sanchís
1998	Francesc Arnau
2011	Juan Mata
2013	Thiago

Player records

Top appearances

Rank	Player	Club(s)	Year(s)	U-21 Caps
1	Gerard Deulofeu	Barcelona, Everton, Sevilla	2012–	32
2	Iker Muniain	Athletic Bilbao	2011–2014	31
3	David de Gea	Atlético Madrid, Manchester United	2009–2013	27
	Santiago Denia	Albacete, Atlético Madrid	1992–1996	27
5	Diego Capel	Sevilla	2007–2011	25
	Xavi	Barcelona	1998–2001	25
7	Óscar García	Barcelona, Albacete	1992–1996	24
	Javi Martínez	Athletic Bilbao	2007–2011	24
	Óliver Torres	Atlético Madrid, Villarreal, Porto	2013–	24
10	Martín Montoya	Barcelona	2010–2013	22
	Pablo Sarabia	Getafe	2011–2014	22

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

Top goalscorers

Rank	Player	Club(s)	Year(s)	U-21 Goals
1	Gerard Deulofeu	Barcelona, Everton, Sevilla	2012–	16
2	Rodrigo	Benfica	2011–2013	15
3	Álvaro Morata	Real Madrid, Juventus	2013–2014	13
4	Óscar García	Barcelona, Albacete	1992–1996	12
5	Isco	Málaga, Real Madrid	2011–2014	10
	Munir El Haddadi	Barcelona, Valencia	2014–	10
7	Pablo Couñago	Recreativo, Celta, Ipswich Town	1999–2001	9
	Adrián	Deportivo La Coruña, Málaga	2007–2011	9
9	Julen Guerrero	Athletic Bilbao	1992–1994	8
	Raúl	Real Madrid	1995–1996	8
	Jonathan Soriano	Espanyol	2005	8

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

Caps and goals correct as of 15 November 2016

Recent results

Date	Competition	Location	Opponent	Result	Scorers
2 September 2015	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification	Tallinn, Estonia	Estonia	2 – 0	Gayà 81', Deulofeu 90+1' (pen.)
7 October 2015	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification	Tbilisi, Georgia	Georgia	5 – 2	Munir 2', 73', Asensio 62', Mayoral 67', Ceballos 90'
13 October 2015	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification	Tenerife, Spain	Sweden	1 – 1	Óliver 20'
12 November 2015	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification	Almería, Spain	Georgia	5 – 0	Deulofeu 17', 33', 84', Williams 56', Ceballos 65'
17 November 2015	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification	Rijeka, Croatia	Croatia	3 – 2	Deulofeu 19' (pen.), 54', Asensio 41'
24 March 2016	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification	Burgos, Spain	Croatia	0 – 3
28 March 2016	Friendly	Murcia, Spain	Norway	1 – 0	Deulofeu 17'
1 September 2016	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification	Castellón, Spain	San Marino	6 – 0	D. González 14', Munir 17', 36', Santi Mina 45', 84', Williams 88'
5 September 2016	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification	Malmö, Sweden	Sweden	1 – 1	Deulofeu 50'
5 October 2016	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification	Serravalle, San Marino	San Marino	3 – 0	Munir 16', Denis Suárez 68', Meré 79'
10 October 2016	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification	Pontevedra, Spain	Estonia	5 – 0	Denis Suárez 36', Asensio 38', 90', Munir 86', 90+3'
11 November 2016	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification play-offs	Sankt Pölten, Austria	Austria	1 – 1	Deulofeu 45+2' (pen.)
15 November 2016	2017 UEFA U-21 qualification play-offs	Albacete, Spain	Austria	0 – 0

Forthcoming fixtures

Date	Competition	Location	Opponent	Result	Scorers

2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

Group phase

Main article: 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group 6

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sweden	10	7	3	0	24	7	+17	24	Final tournament	—	1–1	4–2	3–2	5–0	3–0
2	Spain	10	7	2	1	31	9	+22	23	Play-offs	1–1	—	0–3	5–0	5–0	6–0
3	Croatia	10	6	2	2	24	11	+13	20		1–1	2–3	—	1–0	2–1	4–0
4	Georgia	10	4	1	5	17	17	0	13		0–1	2–5	2–2	—	3–0	4–0
5	Estonia	10	1	1	8	3	26	−23	4		0–3	0–2	0–4	0–1	—	0–0
6	San Marino	10	0	1	9	1	30	−29	1		0–2	0–3	0–3	0–3	1–2	—

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Qualification tiebreakers

Play-offs

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Austria	1—1	Spain	1—1	0—0

Players

Current squad

The following players were named in the squad for 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification play-offs against Austria, at 11 and 15 November 2016.

Caps and goals as of 15 November 2016.

0#0	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	Kepa Arrizabalaga	(1994-10-03) 3 October 1994	18	0	Athletic Bilbao
13	1GK	Pau López	(1994-12-13) 13 December 1994	2	0	Tottenham
19	1GK	Rubén Blanco	(1995-07-25) 25 July 1995	2	0	Celta

2	2DF	Jonny Castro	(1994-03-03) 3 March 1994	13	0	Celta Vigo
3	2DF	José Luis Gayà	(1995-05-25) 25 May 1995	11	1	Valencia
4	2DF	Jorge Meré	(1997-04-17) 17 April 1997	10	1	Sporting Gijón
5	2DF	Jesús Vallejo	(1997-01-05) 5 January 1997	7	0	Eintracht Frankfurt
12	2DF	Javier Manquillo	(1994-05-05) 5 May 1994	7	0	Sunderland
14	2DF	Diego González	(1995-01-28) 28 January 1995	1	1	Sevilla
20	2DF	Aarón Martín Caricol	(1997-04-22) 22 April 1997	0	0	Espanyol

6	3MF	Mikel Merino	(1996-06-22) 22 June 1996	4	0	Borussia Dortmund
8	3MF	Saúl Ñíguez	(1994-11-21) 21 November 1994	19	2	Atlético Madrid
10	3MF	Óliver Torres	(1994-11-10) 10 November 1994	24	3	Porto
11	3MF	Denis Suárez	(1994-01-06) 6 January 1994	15	2	Barcelona
15	3MF	Marcos Llorente	(1995-01-30) 30 January 1995	3	0	Alavés
16	3MF	Marco Asensio	(1996-01-21) 21 January 1996	12	4	Real Madrid
21	3MF	Mikel Oyarzabal	(1997-04-21) 21 April 1997	0	0	Real Sociedad

7	4FW	Gerard Deulofeu (c)	(1994-03-13) 13 March 1994	32	16	Everton
9	4FW	Borja Mayoral	(1997-04-05) 5 April 1997	7	1	Wolfsburg
17	4FW	Munir El Haddadi	(1995-09-01) 1 September 1995	16	10	Valencia
18	4FW	Iñaki Williams	(1994-06-15) 15 June 1994	10	2	Athletic Bilbao

Player(s) those had been capped in senior level will be shown in italic.

Recent callups

The following players have been called up for the team in the last twelve months.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Álex Remiro	(1995-03-24) 24 March 1995	0	0	Levante	v. Estonia, 10 October 2016

DF	Héctor Bellerín	(1995-03-19) 19 March 1995	9	0	Arsenal	v. Estonia, 10 October 2016
DF	Adrián Marín	(1997-01-09) 9 January 1997	1	0	Leganés	v. Estonia, 10 October 2016
DF	Álex Grimaldo	(1995-09-20) 20 September 1995	2	0	Benfica	v. San Marino, 5 October 2016
DF	Rubén Duarte	(1995-10-28) 28 October 1995	9	0	Espanyol	v. Croatia, 24 March 2016
DF	Aritz Elustondo	(1994-03-28) 28 March 1994	1	0	Real Sociedad	v. Croatia, 24 March 2016

MF	Dani Ceballos	(1996-08-07) 7 August 1996	11	2	Betis	v. Estonia, 10 October 2016
MF	Sergi Samper	(1995-01-20) 20 January 1995	3	0	Granada	v. Sweden, 5 September 2016
MF	Víctor Camarasa	(1994-05-28) 28 May 1994	3	0	Alavés	v. Croatia, 24 March 2016
MF	Pablo Fornals	(1996-02-22) 22 February 1996	1	0	Málaga	v. Croatia, 24 March 2016
MF	Alfonso Pedraza	(1996-04-09) 9 April 1996	2	0	Lugo	v. Croatia, 24 March 2016

FW	Samu Castillejo	(1995-01-18) 18 January 1995	4	0	Villarreal	v. Estonia, 10 October 2016
FW	Santi Mina	(1995-12-07) 7 December 1995	3	3	Valencia	v. Sweden, 5 September 2016

Former squads

References

↑ "La sub 21 regresa al lugar donde nació el 'tiqui-taca'" [The under-21 team returns to the birthplace of tiki-taka] (in Spanish). MARCA. 2011-06-09.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Spain national under-21 football team.

Spain national under-21 football team – managers

Meana (1959) Costa, Gabilondo & Lasplazas (1959–60) Biosca (1976–78) Santamaría (1978–80) Suárez (1980–88) Pereda (1988–92) Goikoetxea (1992–96) Sáez (1996–2002) Santisteban & Ufarte (2002–04) Sáez (2004–08) López Caro (2008–10) Milla (2010–12) Lopetegui (2012–14) Celades (2014–)

Spain national football team

General	History Managers

Venues	Ciudad del Fútbol Home venues

Statistics	Results and Fixtures Records Head to head World Cup record Hat-tricks

Players	20+ caps captains World Cup & Euro Championship squads Other categories

World Cup Finals	Summary 1934 1950 1962 1966 1978 1982 1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

UEFA Euro Finals	Summary 1964 1980 1984 1988 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016

Other tournaments	FIFA Confederations Cup The Olympics

Rivalries	Rivalry with Italy Rivalry with Portugal

Other RFEF teams	Men Under-23 Under-21 Under-20 Under-19 Under-18 Under-17 Under-16 Under-15 Women Results Under-20 Under-19 Under-17

Football in Spain

National teams

Men's national team
- U-23
- U-21
- U-20
- U-19
- U-18
- U-17
- U-16
- U-15
Women's national team
- U-20
- U-19
- U-17

League system

Level 1	Primera División

Level 2	Segunda División

Level 3	Segunda División B (4 groups)

Level 4	Tercera División (18 groups)

Levels 5–10	Divisiones Regionales (Andalusia Aragon Asturias Balearic Basque Canary Cantabria Castile-La Mancha Castile and León Catalonia Extremadura Galicia La Rioja Madrid Murcia Navarre Valencia Ceuta, Melilla)

Women's league system

Level 1	Primera División

Level 2	Segunda División (7 groups)

Levels 3–5	Ligas Regionales (Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias, Balearic, Basque, Canary, Cantabria, Castile-La Mancha, Castile and León, Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia, Navarre, Valencia, Ceuta, Melilla)

Youth league system

División de Honor Juvenil (7 groups)
Liga Nacional Juvenil (21 groups)

Domestic cups

Women's domestic cups

Copa de la Reina

Youth domestic cups

National under-21 football teams of Europe (UEFA)

Active	Albania Andorra Armenia Austria Azerbaijan Belarus Belgium Bosnia and Herzegovina Bulgaria Croatia Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark England Estonia Faroe Islands Finland France Georgia Germany Gibraltar Greece Hungary Iceland Israel Italy Kazakhstan Kosovo Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Montenegro Netherlands Northern Ireland Norway Poland Portugal Republic of Ireland Romania Russia San Marino Scotland Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Wales

Defunct	Czechoslovakia East Germany USSR Yugoslavia

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