Nickname(s) | La Rojita (The Little Red One) La Furia Roja (the red fury) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Association | Royal Spanish Football Federation (Real Federación Española de Fútbol – RFEF) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Confederation | UEFA (Europe) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head coach | Santi Denia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Captain | Bryan Gil | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Most caps | Gerard Deulofeu (36) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Top scorer | Gerard Deulofeu (17) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FIFA code | ESP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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First international | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() ![]() (Zagreb, Yugoslavia; 9 October 1976) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Biggest win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() ![]() (El Ejido, Spain; 8 February 2005) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Biggest defeat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() ![]() (Utrecht, Netherlands; 16 February 1983) Records for competitive matches only. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UEFA U-21 Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Appearances | 16 (first in 1982) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Best result | Winners (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2019) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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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),[1] competes in the biennial UEFA European Under-21 Championship.
Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the Spain under-21 team was formed. Spain has a strong record (competition winners five times and runners-up twice); 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 (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.
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