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),[1] competes in the biennial UEFA European Under-21 Championship.
Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the Spain under-21 team was formed. Spain has a strong record (competition winners five times and runners-up twice); having consecutively won the 2011 and 2013 Championships. They hold the joint record with Italy for the most wins of the competition.
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).
Spain's youth development programs has been challenging the South American dominance in the FIFA U-17 World Championship and the FIFA U-20 World Cup. In fact, 20 of the Spanish 23-man squad that won the Euro 2008 came through the ranks of the youth teams; most of them had won titles at the youth level as well.
*Denotes draws including knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.
Spanish players have won individual awards at UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship.
Note: Club(s) represents all the clubs that players played in at the time they did it too in the Under-21s.
Note: Club(s) represents all the clubs that players played in at the time they did it too in the Under-21s.
The following players were called up for 2025 UEFA U-21 qualification matches against Scotland and Hungary.
Caps and goals as of 10 September 2024, after the match against Hungary.
The following players have been called up within the last twelve months are still eligible for selection.
Champions (5): 1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2019. (Shared Record)
Runners-up (4): 1984, 1996, 2017, 2023.
Third place (3): 1994, 2000, 2021