From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Spain Under-21

Nickname	La Furia (The Wrath)
Association	Real Federación Española de Fútbol
Coach	Iñaki Sáez (2004-)
Captain	{{{Captain}}}
Most caps	Daniel Jarque (14)
Top scorer	Jonathan Soriano (8)
Home colours 　 Away colours
First International U-23: Yugoslavia 3-0 Spain Novi Sad, June 18, 1969 U-21:Yugoslavia 4-1 Spain Zagreb, October 9, 1976
Largest win Spain 14-0 San Marino El Ejido, February 8, 2005
Worst defeat Netherlands 5-0 Spain Utrecht, February 16, 1983 Records for competitive matches only.
UEFA U-21 Championship
Appearances	9 (First in 1982)
Best result	Winners (1986 & 1998)
edit

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 ot 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.

Contents 1 UEFA U-23 Championship Record 2 UEFA U-21 Championship Record 3 U-21 Championship squad (2006) 4 See also 5 Sources/External links

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.

• 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.

Goalkeepers:

• Antonio Adán (Real Madrid Castilla)
• Iván Cuéllar (Atlético Madrid)
• Miguel Angel Moyá (RCD Mallorca)

Defenders:

• Raúl Albiol (Valencia CF)
• Melli (Real Betis)
• Miguel Flaño (Osasuna)
• Javier Garrido (Real Sociedad)
• Gerard Piqué (Real Zaragoza)
• Antonio Puerta (Sevilla FC)
• José Enrique (Villarreal CF)

Midfielders:

• Santi Cazorla (Recreativo)
• Rubén De la Red (Real Madrid Castilla)
• Raúl García (Osasuna)
• Jaime Gavilán (Valencia CF)
• José Manuel Jurado (Atlético Madrid)
• Alberto Zapater (Real Zaragoza)

Forwards:

• Javier Arizmendi (Deportivo)
• Kepa Blanco (West Ham United)
• David Silva (Valencia CF)
• Roberto Soldado (Osasuna)
• Juanfran (Osasuna)

• Spain 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.

Football in Spain v • d • e
League competitions RFEF Cup competitions Primera División Spain Copa del Rey Segunda División U-21 Copa de la Liga Segunda División B (4 groups) List of clubs Supercopa de España Tercera División (18 groups) List of venues Copa Federación Divisiones Regionales División de Honor Juvenil (7 groups) Foreign players Liga Nacional Juvenil (16 groups) Superliga Femenina Liga Nacional Femenina (6 groups)
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