Spain national under-21 football team
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| Spain Under-21 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | La Furia (The Wrath) |
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| Association | Real Federación Española de Fútbol |
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| Head coach | Iñaki Sáez (2004-) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most caps | Daniel Jarque (14) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top scorer | Jonathan Soriano (8) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| First International U-23: Yugoslavia 3-0 Spain Novi Sad, June 18, 1969 U-21:Yugoslavia 4-1 Spain Zagreb, October 9, 1976 |
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| Biggest win Spain 14-0 San Marino El Ejido, February 8, 2005 |
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| Biggest defeat Netherlands 5-0 Spain Utrecht, February 16, 1983 matches only. |
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| 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.
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[edit] 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Current squad
The following players has been called up for 2009 UEFA European U-21 Championship qualifying. Players born in 1986 or later are eligible for the 2009 UEFA European U-21 Championship. [1]
Goalkeepers:
Defenders:
Marc Torrejón (Espanyol)- Ignacio Monreal (Osasuna)
- Miguel Torres (Real Madrid)
- Gerard Piqué (FC Barcelona)
- José Ángel Crespo (Sevilla)
Midfielders:
- Javi Martínez (Athletic Club)
- José Manuel Jurado (Atlético de Madrid)
- Raúl García (Atlético de Madrid)
- Javi García (Osasuna)
- José Callejón (Real Madrid Castilla)
- Sisi González (Valladolid)
- Diego Capel (Sevilla)
Forwards:
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources/External links
- UEFA Under-21 website Contains full results archive
- The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships.
