Spain national under-21 football team

Spain Under-21 Nickname(s) La Furia
(The Wrath) Association Real Federación
Española de FútbolHead coach Iñaki Sáez(2004-) Most caps Daniel Jarque(14) Top scorer Jonathan Soriano(8) 　 First kit

　 Second kit

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 9 (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. Spain's tally of six qualification failures may seem high, but of all the countries to enter all fifteen competitions, only Italy have failed to qualify fewer times. The tally of six failures includes the forthcoming 2006 tournament finals, which will take place in May and June.

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. In actual fact, 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.

1 UEFA U-23 Championship Record
2 UEFA U-21 Championship Record
3 Current squad
4 See also
5 Sources/External links

UEFA U-23 Championship Record

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

June 18, 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 U-21 Championship Record

1978: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 3 in qualification group.
1980: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 3 in qualification group.
1982: Losing quarter-finalists.
1984: Runners-up.
1986: Winners.
1988: Losing quarter-finalists.
1990: Losing quarter-finalists.
1992: Did not qualify. Finished 3rd of 5 in qualification group.
1994: Third.
1996: Runners-up.
1998: Winners.
2000: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 4 in qualification group.
2002: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 5 in qualification group. Lost qualification play-off.
2004: Did not qualify. Finished 1st of 5 in qualification group. Lost qualification play-off.
2006: Did not qualify. Finished 3rd of 6 in qualification group.
2007: Did not qualify. Finished 1st of 3 in qualification group. Lost qualification play-off.