Spain national under-21 football 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, 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 ; having consecutively won the 2011 and 2013 Championships. They hold the joint record with Italy for the most wins of the competition.
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.
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">UEFA European Under-21 Championship">UEFA [European Under-21 Championship Record]

*Denotes draws including knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.
In addition to team victories, Spanish players have won individual awards at UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.
YearGolden PlayerGolden Boot
1986Manolo Sanchís
1998Francesc Arnau
2011Juan MataAdrián
2013ThiagoÁlvaro Morata
2017Dani CeballosSaúl
2019Fabián Ruiz

Player records

Top appearances

Note: Club represents all the clubs that players played in at the time they did it too in the Under-21s.

Top goalscorers

Note: Club represents all the clubs that players played in at the time they did it too in the Under-21s.

Forthcoming fixtures

2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

Group phase

Players

Current squad

The following players were called up for the 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification matches against North Macedonia and Israel on 14 and 19 November 2019.

Recent callups

The following players have been called up for the team within the last 12 months and still eligible for 2021 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.
;Notes