The Portugal national under-21 football team is the national under-21

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

and is controlled by the

Portuguese Football Federation The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) ( pt, Federação Portuguesa de Futebol; ) is the governing body of football in Portugal. The federation was formed in 1914 as Portuguese Football Union (UPF) by the three existing regional associations ...

(FPF). They are nicknamed ''"Esperanças."'' ''Esperança'' means hope, thus they are Portugal's hopes for the future. Following the realignment of

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

'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 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

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.

Competitive record

UEFA European Under-21 Championship

:''*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.''

Player records

Top appearances

Note: ''Club(s)'' represents the clubs during the player's time in the Under-21s.

Top goalscorers

Note: ''Club(s)'' represents the clubs during the player's time in the Under-21s.

Current squad

* The following players were called up for the friendly matches. * Match dates: 18 and 22 November 2022 * Opposition: and *Caps and goals correct as of: 22 November 2022, after the match against

Head coaches

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align: left" , - !rowspan=2, Manager !rowspan=2, Period !colspan=8, Record , - ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! , - , José Alberto Costa , –1993 , - ,

Nelo Vingada Eduardo Manuel "Nelo" Martinho Bragança de Vingada (born 30 March 1953) is a Portuguese football manager. Managerial career Early years Vingada was born in Serpa. His first steps as a professional football manager were in Belenenses, and then ...

, 1994–1996 , - ,

Jesualdo Ferreira Manuel Jesualdo Ferreira (born 24 May 1946) is a Portuguese football manager. He is currently the manager of Zamalek in the Egyptian Premier League. In a managerial career of over forty years, he was in charge of all of his country's Big Thre ...

, 1996–2000 , - ,

Agostinho Oliveira Agostinho Vieira de Oliveira (born 5 February 1947) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a defender, and a coach. He had a brief manager stint with Portugal in 2002, and also worked a few years as an assistant with the national tea ...

, 2000–2002 , - , Rui Caçador , 2002 , - ,

José Romão José Pratas Romão (born 13 April 1954) is a Portuguese former football winger and manager. Playing career Born in Beja, Alentejo, Romão started playing for local C.D. Beja. He also represented Vitória de Guimarães, AD Fafe, F.C. Penaf ...

, 2002–2004 , - , Rui Caçador , 2004 , - ,

, 2004–2006 , - ,

José Couceiro José Júlio de Carvalho Peyroteo Martins Couceiro (born 4 October 1962) is a Portuguese football manager, currently the national technical director of the Portuguese Football Federation. Managerial career As a manager, Couceiro's career is marke ...

, 2006–2007 , - , Rui Caçador , 2007–2009 , - ,

Oceano Cruz Oceano Andrade da Cruz (born 29 July 1962), known simply as Oceano, is a Portuguese former professional footballer, currently a manager. A defensive midfielder with tremendous physical strength and leadership skills as his main assets, he was w ...

, 2009–2010 , - ,

Rui Jorge Rui Jorge de Sousa Dias Macedo de Oliveira (born 27 March 1973), known as Rui Jorge, is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a left-back, currently manager of the Portugal national under-21 team. In a 15-year professional career he ...

, 2010–''present''

Honours

UEFA Under-21 European Championship The UEFA European Under-21 Championship, the UEFA Under-21 Championship or simply the Euro Under-21, is a biennial Association football, football competition contested by the European men's under-21 national teams of the UEFA member associations. ...

runners-up:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

References

External links

Official site

UEFA Under-21 website
Contains full results archive

Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships. {{DEFAULTSORT:Portugal National Under-21 Football Team European national under-21 association football teams