Nickname(s) | Sarkanbaltsarkanie (The red-white-reds) |
---|---|
Association | Latvian Football Federation |
Confederation | UEFA (Europe) |
Head coach | Igors Stepanovs |
Captain | Reinis Flaksis |
Most caps | Vitālijs Maksimenko (17) |
Top scorer | Vitālijs Maksimenko (9) |
FIFA code | LVA |
European U-17 championships | |
Appearances | None |
The Latvia national under-17 football team or Latvia U-17 represents Latvia in association football at the under-17 youth level, and is controlled by the Latvian Football Federation.
The team is for Latvian players aged 17 or under at the start of a two-year European Under-17 Football Championship cycle, so players appearing for the team can actually be up to 19 years of age. It is considered a feeder team of the Latvian under-19 and under-21 teams.
Prior to Latvia's independence in 1991 Latvian players were eligible for selection to the Soviet Union U-16 team. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Latvian Football Federation was admitted to UEFA as a full member in 1992, and the Latvia U-16 team played their first competitive matches in the first phase of the qualifying tournament for the 1994 European U-16 Championship. The team's competitive debut came on 18 September 1993 against Russia U-16 and they finished their first qualifying campaign as 3rd out of 3 teams, behind Russia and Norway.
Although the team continued to participate in every under-16 and under-17 European Championship qualifying cycle since 1994, the team never qualified for any of the tournaments.
The following players have been called up for the 2017 UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship matches against Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Moldova in Moldova in September 2016.