UEFA European Under-21 Championship

UEFA European Under-21 Championship

Winners Cup of the UEFA Under 21 Championship
Founded	1989
Region	Europe (UEFA)
Number of teams	53 (qualifiers) 12 (finals)
Current champions	Sweden (1st title)
Most successful team(s)	Italy (5 titles)
2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship

The UEFA European Under-21 Championship (also known as the UEFA Euro U-21s) is a football competition organised by the sport's European governing body, UEFA. It is held every two years. The competition has existed in its current form since 1978. It was preceded by the Under 23 Challenge Cup which ran from 1967 to 1970. A true Under 23 championship was then formed, starting in 1972.

The age limit was reduced to 21 for the 1978 championship and it has remained so since. To be eligible for the campaign ending in 2017, players need to be born in or after 1994. Many can be actually 23 years old by the time the finals tournament takes place; however, when the qualification process began (2015) all players would have been 21 or under.

Under-21 matches are typically played on the day before senior internationals and where possible, the same qualifying groups and fixtures were played out. This was not true for the shortened 2006-2007 Championship.

This tournament serves as qualifier for the Summer Olympics. It has been considered a stepping stone toward the senior team. Players such as 2014 World Cup winner Mesut Özil, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, Luís Figo, Petr Čech, 2010 World Cup winner Iker Casillas, 2006 World Cup winners Francesco Totti, Fabio Cannavaro, Gianluigi Buffon, Alberto Gilardino and Andrea Pirlo, and Euro 2004 winner Georgios Karagounis began their international careers in the youth teams.

Sweden are the reigning champions, defeating Portugal in the 2015 final, on penalties. The finals of the 2015 competition were hosted by Czech Republic.

Competition structure

Up to and including the 1992 competition, all entrants were divided into eight qualification groups, the eight winners of which formed the quarter-finals lineup. The remaining fixtures were played out on a two-legged, home and away basis to determine the eventual winner.

For the 1994 competition, one of the semi-finalists, France, was chosen as a host for the (single-legged) semi-finals, 3rd place playoff and final. Similarly, Spain was chosen to host the last four matches in 1996.

For 1998, nine qualification groups were used, as participation had reached 46, nearly double the 24 entrants in 1976. The top seven group winners qualified automatically for the finals, whilst the eighth- and ninth-best qualifiers, Greece and England, played-off for the final spot. The remaining matches, from the quarter-finals onward, were held in Romania, one of the eight qualifiers.

The 2000 competition also had nine groups, but the nine winners and seven runners-up went into a two-legged playoff to decide the eight qualifiers. From those, Slovakia was chosen as host. For the first time, the familiar finals group stage was employed, with the two winners contesting a final, and two runners-up contesting the 3rd-place playoff. The structure in 2002 was identical, except for the introduction of a semi-finals round after the finals group stage. Switzerland hosted the 2002 finals.

In 2004, ten qualification groups were used, with the group winners and six best runners-up going into the playoff. Germany was host that year. For 2006, the top two teams of eight large qualification groups provided the 16 teams for the playoffs, held in November 2005. Portugal hosted the finals.

Then followed the switch to odd years. The change was made because the senior teams of many nations often chose to promote players from their under-21s team as their own qualification campaign intensified. Staggering the tournaments allowed players more time to develop in the under-21 team rather than get promoted too early and end up becoming reserves for the seniors.

The 2007 competition actually began before the 2006 finals, with a qualification round to eliminate eight of the lowest-ranked nations. For the first time, the host (Netherlands) was chosen ahead of the qualification section. As hosts, Netherlands qualified automatically. Coincidentally, the Dutch team had won the 2006 competition - the holders would normally have gone through the qualification stage. The other nations were all drawn into fourteen three-team groups. The 14 group winners were paired in double-leg play-off to decide the seven qualifiers alongside the hosts.

From 2009 to 2015, ten qualification groups were used, with the group winners and four best runners-up going into the two-legged playoffs.

The 2015 finals will be the last eight-team finals as it will be expanded to twelve teams starting from 2017.

Predecessor tournaments

Under-23 Challenge Cup winners

This was competed for on a basis similar to a boxing title belt. The holders played a randomly chosen opponent for the championship. This format was soon dropped in favour of one that is more familiar to the sport of football.

Date	Winners	Runners-up	Venue
June 1967	Bulgaria	East Germany	Stara Zagora, Bulgaria
September 1967	Bulgaria	Finland	Burgas, Bulgaria
November 1967	Bulgaria	Czechoslovakia	Pleven, Bulgaria
April 1968	Bulgaria	Netherlands	Sofia, Bulgaria
October 1968	Yugoslavia	Bulgaria	Rousse, Bulgaria
June 1969	Yugoslavia	Spain	Novi Sad, Yugoslavia
November 1969	Yugoslavia	Sweden	Zrenjanin, Yugoslavia
March 1970	Yugoslavia	Greece	Athens, Greece

Under-23 champions

Held only three times before it was relabelled by UEFA.

Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up
1972	N/A	Czechoslovakia	2–2 / 3–1 5–3 on aggregate	Soviet Union
1974	N/A	Hungary	2–3 / 4–0 6–3 on aggregate	East Germany
1976	N/A	Soviet Union	1–1 / 2–1 3–2 on aggregate	Hungary

Results

Year	Host	Winner	Score	Runner-up
1978	N/A	Yugoslavia	1–0 / 4–4 5–4 on aggregate	East Germany
1980	N/A	Soviet Union	0–0 / 1–0 1–0 on aggregate	East Germany
1982	N/A	England	3–1 / 2–3 5–4 on aggregate	West Germany
1984	N/A	England	1–0 / 2–0 3–0 on aggregate	Spain
1986	N/A	Spain	1–2 / 2–1 3–3 on aggregate, (3–0) ps	Italy
1988	N/A	France	0–0 / 3–0 3–0 on aggregate	Greece
1990	N/A	Soviet Union	4–2 / 3–1 7–3 on aggregate	Yugoslavia
1992	N/A	Italy	2–0 / 0–1 2–1 on aggregate	Sweden
1994	France	Italy	1–0 aet	Portugal
1996	Spain	Italy	1–1 (4–2) ps	Spain
1998	Romania	Spain	1–0	Greece
2000	Slovakia	Italy	2–1	Czech Republic
2002	Switzerland	Czech Republic	0–0 (3–1) ps	France
2004	Germany	Italy	3–0	Serbia and Montenegro
2006	Portugal	Netherlands	3–0	Ukraine
2007	Netherlands	Netherlands	4–1	Serbia
2009	Sweden	Germany	4–0	England
2011	Denmark	Spain	2–0	Switzerland
2013	Israel	Spain	4–2	Italy
2015	Czech Republic	Sweden	0–0 (4–3) ps	Portugal
2017	Poland

Winners and Runners-up

Fans of Sweden national under-21 football team, 1 July 2015

Team	Winners	Runners-up
Italy	5 (1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004)	2 (1986, 2013)
Spain	4 (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013)	2 (1984, 1996)
England	2 (1982, 1984)	1 (2009)
Netherlands	2 (2006, 2007)	–
Soviet Union	2 (1980, 1990)	–
East Germany / Germany	1 (2009)	3 (1978, 1980, 1982)
Serbia1	1 (1978)	3 (1990, 2004, 2007)
France	1 (1988)	1 (2002)
Czech Republic	1 (2002)	1 (2000)
Sweden	1 (2015)	1 (1992)
Greece	–	2 (1988, 1998)
Portugal	–	2 (1994, 2015)
Ukraine	–	1 (2006)
Switzerland	–	1 (2011)

• ¹ Includes results representing Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro in 2004.

Awards

Golden Player

The Golden Player award is awarded to the player who plays the most outstanding football during the tournament.

European Championship	Golden Player	Ref(s)
1978	Vahid Halilhodžić
1980	Anatoliy Demyanenko
1982	Rudi Völler
1984	Mark Hateley
1986	Manolo Sanchís
1988	Laurent Blanc
1990	Davor Šuker
1992	Renato Buso
1994 France	Luís Figo
1996 Spain	Fabio Cannavaro
1998 Romania	Francesc Arnau
2000 Slovakia	Andrea Pirlo
2002 Switzerland	Petr Čech
2004 Germany	Alberto Gilardino
2006 Portugal	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
2007 Netherlands	Royston Drenthe
2009 Sweden	Marcus Berg
2011 Denmark	Juan Mata
2013 Israel	Thiago Alcântara
2015 Czech Republic	William Carvalho

Golden Boot

The UEFA European Under-21 Championship adidas Golden Boot award will be handed to the player who scores the most goals during the tournament. Since the 2013 tournament, those who finish as runners-up in the vote receive the Silver Boot and Bronze Boot awards as the second and third top goalscorer players in the tournament respectively.

Tournament	Golden Boot	Goals	Silver Boot	Goals	Bronze Boot	Goals	Ref(s)
2000 Slovakia	Andrea Pirlo	3
2002 Switzerland	Massimo Maccarone	3
2004 Germany	Alberto Gilardino	4
2006 Portugal	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar	4
2007 Netherlands	Maceo Rigters	4
2009 Sweden	Marcus Berg	7
2011 Denmark	Adrián López	5
2013 Israel	Álvaro Morata	4	Thiago	3	Isco	3
2015 Czech Republic	Jan Kliment	3	Kevin Volland	2	John Guidetti	2

EURO Under-21 dream team

On 17 June 2015, UEFA revealed an all-time best XI from the previous Under-21 final tournaments.

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Manuel Neuer	Mats Hummels Giorgio Chiellini Alessandro Nesta Branislav Ivanović	Frank Lampard Mesut Özil Andrea Pirlo Xavi	Francesco Totti Raúl

See also

• UEFA European Championship
• UEFA European Under-19 Championship
• UEFA European Under-17 Championship

External links

• The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships.
• UEFA European U-21 Championship at uefa.com