Nickname(s) | La Rojita (The Little Red [One]) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Association | Royal Spanish Football Federation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Confederation | UEFA (Europe) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head coach | Albert Celades (2014–) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Most caps | Gerard Deulofeu (32) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Top scorer | Gerard Deulofeu (16) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
FIFA code | ESP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
First international | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Yugoslavia 4–1 Spain (Zagreb, Yugoslavia; 9 October 1976) |
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Biggest win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spain 14–0 San Marino (El Ejido, Spain; 8 February 2005) |
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Biggest defeat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Netherlands 5–0 Spain |
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UEFA U-21 Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Appearances | 12 (first in 1982) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Best result | Winners (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
Spain national under-21 football team
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Netherlands 5–0 Spain
(Utrecht, Netherlands; 16 February 1983)
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 team, nicknamed La Rojita (The Little Red [One]), competes in the biennial UEFA European Under-21 Championship.
Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the Spanish under-21 team was formed. Spain has a fantastic record (competition winners four times and runners-up twice); having consecutively won the 2011 and 2013 Championships. Only Italy with five titles has won the competition more often than Spain.
Since the under-21 competition rules insist that players must be 21 or under at the start of 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, though in actuality, Spain played only three competitive U-23 matches. The first was in the "under-23 Challenge", which they lost, while 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).