France under-21 national football team
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| Nickname(s) |
Les Bleuets (The Little Blues) Les Espoirs (The Hopes) |
|---|---|
| Association | French Football Federation |
| Head coach | Pierre Mankowski |
| Captain | Corentin Tolisso |
| Most caps | Mickaël Landreau (43) |
| Top scorer | Sébastien Haller (13) |
| First international | |
U23:  France 0–0 Norway  Alès, 11 November 1970 U21: France 1–1 Belgium  Amiens, 3 September 1976 |
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| Biggest win | |
France 7–0 Yugoslavia  Reims, 16 November 1985 |
|
| Biggest defeat | |
 England 6–0 France Sheffield, 28 February 1984 matches only. |
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| UEFA U-21 Championship | |
| Appearances | 8 (first in 1982) |
| Best result | Winners (1988) |
The France national under-21 football team (French: Equipe de France Espoirs), known in France as Les Espoirs (French pronunciation: [ɛs.pwaʁ], The Hopes), is the national under-21 football team of France and is controlled by the French Football Federation. The team competes in the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years. The team was previously coached by former Toulouse manager Erick Mombaerts, however, following the team's failure to qualify for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship in October 2012, he agreed to leave the position.
Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, under-21 football teams in Europe were formed. The team is exclusively for football players that are age 21 or under at the start of the two-year campaign of the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship meaning a player can represent the national team until the age of 23. Since the coaching tenure of Aimé Jacquet, there has been an unwritten rule among senior national team coaches that players called up to the national team must have had prior international experience with the under-21 team. Due to the country's multicultural background, France regularly produces under-21 players who have gone on to play for other country's senior national teams. Players such as Mourad Meghni, Issiar Dia, Sébastien Bassong, and Hassan Yebda all represented France at under-21 level before opting to represent their country of origin at senior level.
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