Netherlands national under-21 football team

Netherlands U21
Nickname	Jong Oranje (Young Orange)
Association	Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond
Head coach	Michael Reiziger
Captain	Devyne Rensch
Most caps	Arnold Bruggink & Leroy Fer (31)
Top scorer	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (18)
First colours	Second colours
UEFA U-21 Championship
Appearances	10 (first in 1988)
Best result	Winners (2006, 2007)

The Netherlands national under-21 football team is the national under-21 team of the Netherlands and is controlled by the Royal Dutch Football Association. The team competes in the European Under-21 Championship, held every two years.

Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the Dutch Under-21 team was formed. The team did not have a very good record, failing to qualify for nine of the fifteen tournaments. The team did not enter for the 1978 competition, but since then has reached the semi-finals twice, and qualified for the last eight on three other occasions.

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, the Netherlands' record in the preceding U-23 competitions is also shown. The first competitive match was in the "Under-23 Challenge", a match which they lost. The team qualified for the last eight of each of the three U-23 tournaments.

In 2006 the Netherlands national under-21 football team of coach Foppe de Haan won the 2006 European Under-21 Championship. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar became top scorer and player of the tournament with four goals, and also broke the all-time goalscoring record of 15 goals previously held by Roy Makaay and Arnold Jan Bruggink, in his last match with the team as he pushed this record to eighteen goals. The following year, Netherlands national under-21 football team successfully defended their title by winning the 2007 European Under-21 Championship in the final against Serbia with 4–1. Maceo Rigters was the top scorer of the competition with four goals and Royston Drenthe was the Player of the Tournament. The win meant that the Netherlands qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The team failed to qualify for the 2009 European Under-21 Championship, after losing out to Switzerland in their final qualifying match.

Competitive record

UEFA U-23 Championship record

The Netherlands were randomly chosen to play against Bulgaria for the title in a one-off match in Sofia, which the Netherlands lost.

17 April 1968: Bulgaria 3–1 Netherlands.

UEFA U-23 Championship Record

Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA
UEFA U-23 Championship Record									Qualification record
1972	Quarter-finals	?	3	0	1	2	4	2	4	2	1	1	9	7
1974	Quarter-finals	?	2	1	0	1	4	4	2	2	0	0	4	1
1976	Semi finals	?	4	2	0	2	3	5	4	3	1	0	10	3
Total	0 titles	3/3	9	3	1	5	11	11	10	7	2	1	23	11

(*) Denotes draws including knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.

UEFA U-21 Championship Record

Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA	Squad	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA
UEFA U-21 Championship Record										Qualification record
1978	did not enter									did not enter
1980	did not qualify									4	0	1	3	4	8
1982										4	2	0	2	4	4
1984										4	1	2	1	7	3
1986										6	4	1	1	11	3
1988	Semi-finals	3rd/4th	4	3	0	1	5	6	—	6	5	0	1	12	5
1990	did not qualify									6	1	2	3	6	9
1992	Quarter-finals	5th	2	1	0	1	2	2	—	6	4	2	0	20	4
1994	did not qualify									10	3	2	5	11	14
1996	did not qualify									10	6	2	2	23	9
1998	Fourth place	4th	3	1	0	2	2	2	Squad	8	6	1	1	26	5
2000	Group stage	6th	3	1	0	2	3	5	Squad	10	7	1	2	21	9
2002	did not qualify									10	5	3	2	22	10
2004	did not qualify									8	1	4	3	6	10
2006	Final	Champions	5	3	1	1	9	5	Squad	10	7	2	1	21	7
2007	Final	Champions	5	3	2	0	10	5	Squad	Qualified as hosts
2009	did not qualify									8	5	1	2	10	3
2011	did not qualify									10	8	0	2	22	8
2013	Semi-finals	3rd/4th	4	2	0	2	8	7	Squad	10	8	1	1	25	3
2015	did not qualify									10	5	1	4	26	13
2017										8	4	2	2	15	10
2019										10	5	3	2	21	6
2021	Semi-finals	3rd/4th	5	2	2	1	11	6	Squad	10	9	0	1	46	5
2023	Group stage	9th	3	0	3	0	2	2	Squad	10	8	2	0	32	3
2025	Semi-finals	3rd/4th	5	2	1	2	7	6		10	10	0	0	32	3
Total	2 titles	10/25	39	18	9	12	59	40	—	188	114	33	41	423	154

(*) Denotes draws including knockout matches decided via penalty shoot-out.

Olympic Games

Summer Olympic record
Year	Round	Position	GP	W	D*	L	GS	GA
1992	Did not qualify
1996
2000
2004
2008	Quarter-finals	7th	4	1	2	1	4	4
2012	Did not qualify
2016
2020
2024
Total	1/9	0 Medals	4	1	2	1	4	4

Results and fixtures 2021–2023

2023 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

Qualification

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Netherlands	10	8	2	0	32	3	+29	26	Final tournament	—	2–0	3–0	5–0	3–1	6–0
2	Switzerland	10	7	2	1	22	6	+16	23	Final tournament	2–2	—	3–0	5–1	1–0	4–0
3	Moldova	10	3	3	4	7	12	−5	12		0–3	1–1	—	1–0	0–2	1–0
4	Wales	10	3	2	5	15	14	+1	11		0–1	0–1	0–0	—	1–1	2–0
5	Bulgaria	10	2	4	4	10	11	−1	10		0–0	0–1	0–0	0–4	—	5–0
6	Gibraltar	10	0	1	9	1	41	−40	1		0–7	0–4	0–4	0–7	1–1	—

Source: UEFA
Rules for classification: Tiebreakers

Players

Current squad

Players born on or after 1 January 2004 are eligible for the 2027 UEFA European Under-21 Championship. ^[1]

The following players were named in the squad for the 2027 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group G match against Israel on 9 September 2025.^[2]

On 1 September, Jayden Addai and Ezechiel Banzuzi withdrew from the squad due to injuries and were replaced by Jaden Slory and Tygo Land.^[3] A day later, Ruben van Bommel also had to withdraw through injury and was replaced by Isaac Babadi.^[4]

Caps and goals correct as of 25 June 2025, after the match against England.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1GK	Rome-Jayden Owusu-Oduro	(2004-07-02) 2 July 2004 (age 21)	4	0	AZ
1GK	Tom de Graaff	(2004-12-10) 10 December 2004 (age 20)	0	0	PEC Zwolle
1GK	Niek Schiks	(2004-02-03) 3 February 2004 (age 21)	0	0	PSV

2DF	Rav van den Berg	(2004-07-07) 7 July 2004 (age 21)	6	1	FC Köln
2DF	Wouter Goes	(2004-06-10) 10 June 2004 (age 21)	5	0	AZ
2DF	Lamare Bogarde	(2004-01-05) 5 January 2004 (age 21)	1	0	Aston Villa
2DF	Thijmen Blokzijl	(2005-02-25) 25 February 2005 (age 20)	0	0	FC Groningen
2DF	Elijah Dijkstra	(2006-08-05) 5 August 2006 (age 19)	0	0	AZ
2DF	Mats Rots	(2006-03-11) 11 March 2006 (age 19)	0	0	FC Twente
2DF	Jozhua Vertrouwd	(2004-08-21) 21 August 2004 (age 21)	0	0	Rayo Vallecano
2DF	Marvin Young	(2005-10-02) 2 October 2005 (age 20)	0	0	Sparta Rotterdam

3MF	Gjivai Zechiël	(2004-06-01) 1 June 2004 (age 21)	6	1	FC Utrecht
3MF	Antoni Milambo	(2005-04-03) 3 April 2005 (age 20)	5	0	Brentford
3MF	Isaac Babadi	(2005-04-06) 6 April 2005 (age 20)	2	1	Royal Antwerp
3MF	Dave Kwakman	(2004-08-07) 7 August 2004 (age 21)	0	0	AZ
3MF	Tygo Land	(2006-01-11) 11 January 2006 (age 19)	0	0	FC Groningen
3MF	Kees Smit	(2006-01-20) 20 January 2006 (age 19)	0	0	AZ

4FW	Ernest Poku	(2004-01-28) 28 January 2004 (age 21)	13	2	Bayer Leverkusen
4FW	Thom van Bergen	(2004-01-06) 6 January 2004 (age 21)	9	3	FC Groningen
4FW	Ro-Zangelo Daal	(2004-02-10) 10 February 2004 (age 21)	0	0	AZ
4FW	Don-Angelo Konadu	(2006-05-03) 3 May 2006 (age 19)	0	0	Ajax
4FW	Jorg Schreuders	(2004-09-09) 9 September 2004 (age 21)	0	0	FC Groningen
4FW	Jaden Slory	(2005-05-09) 9 May 2005 (age 20)	0	0	Feyenoord

Recent call ups

The following players have previously been called up to the Netherlands under-21 squad in the last year and remain eligible.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up

DF	Jorrel Hato	(2006-03-07) 7 March 2006 (age 19)	11	0	Chelsea	v. England, 25 June 2025
DF	Maxim Dekker	(2004-04-21) 21 April 2004 (age 21)	2	0	AZ	v. Slovenia, 14 November 2024

MF	Ezechiel Banzuzi	(2005-02-16) 16 February 2005 (age 20)	5	1	RB Leipzig	September 2025 Camp ^INJ

FW	Ruben van Bommel	(2004-08-03) 3 August 2004 (age 21)	15	4	PSV	September 2025 Camp ^INJ
FW	Jayden Addai	(2005-08-26) 26 August 2005 (age 20)	0	0	Como	September 2025 Camp ^INJ

^INJ Withdrew due to injury. ^PRE Preliminary squad. ^SEN Accepted call up to senior team.

Overage players in Olympic Games

Tournament	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3
2008	Kew Jaliens (DF)	Gerald Sibon (FW)	Roy Makaay (FW)

Notable players from under-21 football team

Individual all-time records

Still active players are highlighted

Most capped players

Rank	Player	Career	Matches	Goals
1	Arnold Bruggink	1995–1999	31	15
1	Leroy Fer	2009–2013	31	6
3	Daniël de Ridder	2004–2007	30	1
4	Niels Oude Kamphuis	1996–2000	28	2
5	Roy Makaay	1994–1998	27	15
5	Mark van Bommel	1996–2000	27	3
7	Kiki Musampa	1996–2000	25	8
7	Arnold Kruiswijk	2003–2007	25	0
9	Georginio Wijnaldum	2009–2013	24	10
10	Daley Blind	2009–2013	23	0
	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar	2002–2006	23	18
	Bram Nuytinck	2010–2013	23	2
	Marco van Ginkel	2011–2014	23	4
	Tonny Vilhena	2013–2016	23	4

Last updated: 29 May 2014

Most goals scored

Rank	Player	Career	Goals	Matches	Average
1	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar	2002–2006	18	23	0.78
2	Roy Makaay	1994–1998	15	27	0.56
2	Arnold Bruggink	1995–1999	15	31	0.48
4	Género Zeefuik	2011–2012	10	12	0.83
4	Georginio Wijnaldum	2009–2013	10	24	0.42
6	Brian Brobbey	2021–2023	9	17	0.53
7	Vincent Janssen	2014–2015	8	10	0.80
7	Kiki Musampa	1996–2000	8	25	0.32
9	Edwin Bakker	1984–1985	7	7	1.00
	Ronald de Boer	1989–1992	7	9	0.78
	Quincy Promes	2013–2014	7	10	0.70
	Joshua Zirkzee	2020–2023	7	19	0.37
	Jurgen Ekkelenkamp	2020–2023	7	22	0.32

Last updated: 27 June 2023

References

^ "Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship". UEFA. 30 January 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
^ "Jong Oranje met twaalf debutanten van start met nieuwe EK-kwalificatiecampagne" (in Dutch). Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond. 29 August 2025. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
^ "Twee wijzigingen in selectie Jong Oranje; Addai en Banzuzi vallen af, debuut Slory en Land" (in Dutch). Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond. 1 September 2025. Retrieved 4 September 2025.
^ "Babadi replaces Van Bommel at Jong Oranje" (in Dutch). Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond. 2 September 2025. Retrieved 4 September 2025.

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.
Official KNVB U-21 site in Dutch

[1] "Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship". UEFA. 30 January 2023. Retrieved 6 September 2024.

[2] "Jong Oranje met twaalf debutanten van start met nieuwe EK-kwalificatiecampagne" (in Dutch). Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond. 29 August 2025. Retrieved 4 September 2025.

[3] "Twee wijzigingen in selectie Jong Oranje; Addai en Banzuzi vallen af, debuut Slory en Land" (in Dutch). Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond. 1 September 2025. Retrieved 4 September 2025.

[4] "Babadi replaces Van Bommel at Jong Oranje" (in Dutch). Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond. 2 September 2025. Retrieved 4 September 2025.

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