The England women's national under-20 football team is a now defunct

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team that represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

women at under-20 level until 2018. It was governed by

the Football Association The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world a ...

(FA) since 1993, having been previously administered by the

Women's Football Association The Women's Football Association (WFA) was the governing body of women's football in England. It was formed in 1969 and was disbanded in 1993, as responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the game of women's football in England passed to Th ...

(WFA). Although most national football teams represent a

sovereign state A sovereign state or sovereign country, is a political entity represented by one central government that has supreme legitimate authority over territory. International law defines sovereign states as having a permanent population, defined te ...

, as a member of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Home Nations Home Nations is a collective term with one of two meanings depending on context. Politically it means the nations of the constituent countries of the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales). In sport, if a sport is g ...

, England is permitted by FIFA statutes to maintain its own national side that competes in all major tournaments. The team now operates as England Under-21s.

2018 Under-20 World Cup

In 2018 they finished third at the

2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup The 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup, the biennial international women's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its i ...

, their best ever finish at the tournament. They won the play-off for third 4–2 on penalties against the host nation

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. In the knockout rounds, they overcame tournament debutants

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2–1 in the quarter-finals before losing 2–0 to Japan, which was the first time England they had reached the semi-final stage.

Move to U-21 system

In a bid to better aid the transition between the youth pathway and senior football, the WFA announced in September 2018 that they were scrapping the U23s and U20s format in order to form an Under-21s age group, which would become the top tier of the nation's professional development phase. The move would align England's structure to that used in other European countries, allowing for more age-appropriate games and better manage individual player development post-U20 World Cup for those who have genuine senior team potential. The then U20s manager

Mo Marley Maureen "Mo" Marley MBE (née Mallon; born 31 January 1967) is an English football manager and former player. She most recently managed the England women's national under-21 football team. As a player, Marley was a centre back, who captained b ...

was announced as head coach.

Competitive record

FIFA Under-20 Women's World Cup

Current squad

Head coach

named a 21-player squad to participate in the

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

. Players born between 1 January 1998 and 31 December 2002 were eligible to compete in the tournament.

References

under-20 European women's national under-20 association football teams {{National-women-youth-footy-team-stub