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France Under-21
Nickname(s)	Les Bleuets (patterned after Les Bleus, nickname for the senior team) Espoirs
Association	Fédération Française de Football
Head coach	René Girard
Most caps	? (?)
Top scorer	? (?)
First kit 　 Second kit
First International U23: France 0-0 Norway Alès, November 11, 1970 U21: France 1-1 Belgium Amiens, September 3, 1976
Biggest win France 7-0 Yugoslavia Reims, November 16, 1985
Biggest defeat England 6-1 France Sheffield, February 28, 1984 Records for competitive matches only.
UEFA U-21 Championship
Appearances	8 (First in 1982)
Best result	Winners 1988

The France national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of France and is controlled by the French Football Federation. 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 French Under-21 team was formed. The team has a good record - it has finished first, second, third and fourth in the competition on one occasion each. The team failed to qualify for the finals on seven occasions, but will take part in the forthcoming 2006 tournament finals, which will take place in Portugal in May and June.

Since the under-21 competition rules insist that players must be 21 or under at the start ot a two year competition, technically it is an U-23 competition. For this reason, France's record in the preceding U-23 competitions is also shown. France did not enter a team in the first two U-23 competitions, but reached the quarter finals in the third.

Contents 1 UEFA U-23 Championship Record 2 UEFA U-21 Championship Record 3 Current and recent players 3.1 Participants in the 2007 Toulon Youth Festival 4 See also 5 Sources/External links

• 1972: Did not qualify. Finished 4th of 4 in qualification group.
• 1974: Did not qualify. Finished 3rd of 3 in qualification group.
• 1976: Losing quarter-finalists.

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

Players born in 1986 or later are eligible for the 2007-09 UEFA European U-21 Championship, 1988 or later are eligible for the 2009-11 UEFA European U-21 Championship and so on. The Under-19 team will be the most obvious source of the next crop of Under-21s.

1986-born (eligible to 2009 UEFA European U-21 Championship) Sébastien Bassong Habib Bellaïd Alexandre Bonnet Yohan Cabaye Mohamed Chakouri Mathieu Coutadeur Mouhamadou Dabo Kevin Das Neves Didier Digard Franck Dja Djedje Ricardo Faty Abou Diaby Yohan Gouffran Yoann Gourcuff Geoffrey Jourdren Younes Kaboul Hugo Lloris Florian Marange Sylvain Marveaux Yassin Moutaouakil Charles N'Zogbia Julien Quercia Mamadou Samassa Moussa Sow

1987-born (eligible to 2009 UEFA European U-21 Championship) Hatem Ben Arfa Karim Benzema Razak Boukari Clément Chantôme Issiar Dia Pierre Ducasse Karim El Mourabet Serge Gakpé Maxime Josse Larrys Mabiala Blaise Matuidi Jérémy Menez Samir Nasri Dimitri Payet Rémy Riou

Those players in italics have caps for the senior team. Details of exactly which players have been selected for the March 2007 fixture against Denmark and Norway are available here.

See also: 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship squads.

Les espoirs participated in the annual Toulon Youth Festival, held during May and June of 2007. The following players were selected in the squad[1]; most of the regular players were selected instead for the UEFA U-21 Championship qualifying match against Romania on 1 June 2007.

Goalkeepers

• Benoît Costil (SM Caen), 0 caps / 0 goals*
• Geoffrey Jourdren (Montpellier HSC), 1 cap / 0 goals

Defenders

• Mohamed Chakouri (Montpellier HSC), 1 cap / 0 goals
• Romain Danze (Stade Rennais FC), 0 caps / 0 goals
• Maxime Josse (Stade Brest 29), 2 caps / 0 goals
• Cyriaque Louvion (Le Mans Union Club 72), 0 caps / 0 goals
• Thomas Mangani (Stade Brest 29), 0 caps / 0 goals
• Yassine Moutaouakil (LB Châteauroux), 1 cap / 0 goals
• Sandy Paillot (Olympique Lyonnais), 0 caps / 0 goals

Midfielders

• Alexandre Bonnet (Toulouse FC), 1 cap / 1 goal
• Ricardo Faty (A.S. Roma), 0 caps / 0 goals
• Jonathan Lacourt (Troyes AC), 0 caps / 0 goals
• Youssouf Mulumbu (Paris Saint-Germain FC), 0 caps / 0 goals
• Alexandre Raineau (SM Caen), 0 caps / 0 goals

Forwards

• Abdoulrazak Boukari (RC Lens), 2 caps / 1 goal
• Franck Dja Djedje (Grenoble Foot 38), 1 cap / 1 goal
• Alharbi El Jadeyaoui (LB Châteauroux), 0 caps / 0 goals
• Elliot Grandin (SM Caen), 0 caps / 0 goals
• Ali-Azouz Mathlouthi (RC Strasbourg), 0 caps / 0 goals
• Loïc Remy (Olympique Lyonnais), 0 caps / 0 goals

*caps / goals before the start of the tournament

• France national football team
• European Under-21 Football Championship

• UEFA Under-21 website Contains full results archive
• The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships.

National under-21 football teams of Europe (UEFA) v • d • e
Albania | Andorra | Armenia | Austria | Azerbaijan | Belarus | Belgium | Bosnia and Herzegovina | Bulgaria | Croatia | Cyprus | Czech Republic | Denmark | England | Estonia | Faroe Islands | Finland | France | Georgia | Germany | Greece | Hungary | Iceland | Republic of Ireland | Israel | Italy | Kazakhstan | Latvia | Liechtenstein | Lithuania | Luxembourg | FYR of Macedonia | Malta | Moldova | Montenegro | Netherlands | Northern Ireland | Norway | Poland | Portugal | Romania | Russia | San Marino | Scotland | Serbia | Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain | Sweden | Switzerland | Turkey | Ukraine | Wales Former nations: Czechoslovakia | East Germany | USSR | Yugoslavia
European Under-21 Championship v • d • e
1976-1978 | 1978-1980 | 1980-1982 | 1982-1984 | 1984-1986 | 1986-1988 | 1988-1990 | 1990-1992 | 1992-1994 France | 1994-1996 Spain | 1996-1998 Romania | 1998-2000 Slovakia | 2000-2002 Switzerland | 2002-2004 Germany | 2004-2006 Portugal | 2006-2007 Netherlands | 2007-2009 Sweden