Portugal national under-21 football team
 | |||
| Nickname(s) | Esperanças (Hopes) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Association |
Federação Portuguesa de Futebol | ||
| Head coach | Rui Jorge | ||
| Captain | Sérgio Oliveira | ||
| Top scorer | Hugo Almeida (16) | ||
| |||
| First international | |||
 Portugal 3–1 South Africa  Lisbon, 16 November 1958 | |||
| Biggest win | |||
Portugal 8–1 Armenia  Estoril, 19 August 1997 | |||
| Biggest defeat | |||
|
matches only. | |||
| UEFA U-21 Championship | |||
| Appearances | 7 (First in 1994) | ||
| Best result | Runners-up in 1994, 2015 | ||
The Portugal national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Portugal and is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). They are nicknamed "Esperanças." Esperança means hope, thus they are Portugal's hopes for the future.
Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the Portuguese under-21 team was formed. Until 1994, the team had a rather poor record, failing to qualify for each of the first eight UEFA under-21 Championships. Since 1994, the team has improved its record greatly, qualifying for five of the next seven tournaments, including the 2006 finals.
Having qualified for the 2006 tournament finals, UEFA announced that Portugal would host the finals in May and June. From 2007 onwards, host nations will be announced before the qualification stage and will not need to qualify.
Competition records
UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship
| Year | Round | Position | Pld | W | D * | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 to 1980 | Did Not Qualify | ||||||||
| 1982 | Did Not Enter | ||||||||
| 1984 to 1992 | Did Not Qualify | ||||||||
 1994 |
Runners up | 2nd | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 | + 5 |
 1996 |
Quarter Finals | 7th | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | - 1 |
| 1998 to 2000 | Did Not Qualify | ||||||||
 2002 |
Group Stage | 5th | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 |
 2004 |
Third Place | 3rd | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 11 | -2 |
| 2006 |
Group Stage | 6th | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | -2 |
 2007 |
Group Stage | 6th | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | +3 |
| 2009 to 2013 | Did Not Qualify | ||||||||
 2015 |
Runners up | 2nd | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 | +6 |
| Total | 0 Titles | 0/6 | 26 | 11 | 7 | 9 | 34 | 25 | +9 |
- *Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty kicks.
- **Gold background colour indicates that the tournament was won.
- ***Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.
Current squad
- The following squad was selected for the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification matches against Liechtenstein on 24 March 2016.
Players born in on or after 1 January 1992 are eligible for the current 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers.
Caps and goals are correct as of 24 March 2016 after the game against Liechtenstein.
| # | Pos. | Player | Date of birth (age) | Caps | Goals | Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GK | Bruno Varela | 4 November 1994 | 8 | 0 | Real Valladolid
| ||
| 12 | GK | Miguel Silva | 7 April 1995 | 0 | 0 | Vitória de Guimarães | ||
| 2 | DF | Rúben Semedo | 4 April 1994 | 1 | 1 | Sporting CP
| ||
| 3 | DF | Edgar Ié | 1 May 1994 | 4 | 1 | Villarreal B
| ||
| 4 | DF | Tobias Figueiredo | 2 February 1994 | 10 | 1 | Sporting CP
| ||
| 5 | DF | Rafa Soares | 9 May 1995 | 9 | 0 | Académica
| ||
| 22 | DF | João Cancelo | 27 May 1994 | 8 | 1 | Valencia | ||
| 6 | MF | Rúben Neves | 13 March 1997 | 10 | 2 | Porto
| ||
| 7 | MF | Rony Lopes | 28 December 1995 | 10 | 1 | Lille
| ||
| 8 | MF | Tomás Podstawski | 30 January 1995 | 3 | 0 | Porto B
| ||
| 13 | DF | Leandro Silva | 4 May 1994 | 0 | 0 | Académica
| ||
| 20 | MF | Francisco Ramos | 10 April 1995 | 4 | 0 | Porto B
| ||
| 23 | MF | Bruno Fernandes (captain) | 8 September 1994 | 7 | 2 |  Udinese | ||
| 9 | FW | Gonçalo Paciência | 1 August 1994 | 11 | 5 | Académica
| ||
| 10 | FW | Ricardo Horta | 15 September 1994 | 11 | 4 | Málaga
| ||
| 11 | FW | Carlos Mané | 11 March 1994 | 14 | 3 | Sporting CP
| ||
| 14 | FW | Bruma | 24 October 1994 | 7 | 2 | Real Sociedad
| ||
| 15 | FW | Diogo Jota | 4 December 1996 | 1 | 0 | Paços de Ferreira
| ||
| 16 | FW | Hélder Costa | 12 January 1994 | 6 | 3 | Monaco
| ||
| 17 | FW | Gonçalo Guedes | 29 November 1996 | 2 | 1 | Benfica
| ||
| 18 | FW | Iuri Medeiros | 10 July 1994 | 12 | 0 | Moreirense
| ||
| 19 | FW | André Silva | 6 November 1995 | 3 | 4 | Porto B
| ||
| 21 | FW | Gelson Martins | 11 May 1995 | 3 | 1 | Sporting CP | ||
Previous squads
Head coaches
| Manager | Period | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matches | Won | Draw | Lost | GF | GA | GD | |||
| Jesualdo Ferreira | 1996-2000 | ||||||||
| Agostinho Oliveira | 2001-2002 | ||||||||
| José Romão | 2002-2004 | ||||||||
| Agostinho Oliveira | 2004-2006 | ||||||||
| José Couceiro | 2006-2007 | ||||||||
| Rui Caçador | 2007-2009 | ||||||||
| Oceano Cruz | 2009-2010 | ||||||||
| Rui Jorge | 2010- | ||||||||
Honours
- UEFA Under-21 European Championship: Runners-up 2015
See also
References
External links
- UEFA Under-21 website Contains full results archive
- The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships.
- (Portuguese) Official site
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||