The Scotland national under-21 football team, controlled by the

Scottish Football Association The Scottish Football Association (also known as the SFA and the Scottish FA; sco, Scots Fitba Association; Scottish Gaelic: ''Comann Ball-coise na h-Alba'') is the governing body of football in Scotland and has the ultimate responsibility f ...

, is

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

's national under 21 football team and is considered to be a feeder team for the

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team gd, Sgioba Ball-coise Nàiseanta na h-Alba sco, Scotland National Fitbaa Team represents Scotland in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. ...

. As a European under-21 team, Scotland compete in the

UEFA European Under-21 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. ...

, which is usually held every other year. The team has qualified for the final stages of these Championships on six occasions, although not since

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

. There is no global tournament for under-21 national teams. Performance in the European Championship determines qualification for

football at the Summer Olympics Football at the Summer Olympics, referred to as the Olympic Football Tournament, has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 (the inaugural Games) and 1932 (in an attempt to promote the new FIFA ...

, which Scotland is unable to compete in.

History

Scotland played under-23 international matches, mainly friendlies against

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 ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, from 1955 until 1975. Scotland first entered the UEFA competition for under-23 national teams in 1975–76. Scotland reached the quarter-finals, but were eliminated on a penalty shootout by the Netherlands. An under-21 team then came into existence, replacing the under-23 team, when UEFA reduced the age limit. Scotland under-21s have reached the last four of the European tournament three times (1982, 1992 and 1996), while appearing in the quarter finals on three other occasions (1980, 1984 and 1988). The team qualified for the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

and

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, but were unable to compete due to Scotland not being independently represented in the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

. The under-21 team has not qualified for a finals tournament since the late 1990s. They reached the playoff round for the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight ...

and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

tournaments, but lost to

Croatia , image_flag = Flag of Croatia.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Croatia.svg , anthem = " Lijepa naša domovino"("Our Beautiful Homeland") , image_map = , map_caption = , capi ...

and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

respectively. In

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, an under-21 squad returned to the

Toulon Tournament The Toulon Tournament (officially the Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello) is a football (training match) tournament, which traditionally features invited national teams composed of youth players from U-17 to U-23 level. ...

. Despite the loss to

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

in a penalty-out for third-place. Scotland did receive the tournament Fair Play Award.

Competitive record

Champions Runners-up Third place Fourth place Tournament held on home soil

UEFA European U-21 Championship Record

''*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided by a

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

.''

Other tournaments

''*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided by a

.''

Head coaches

Archie Knox Archibald Knox (born 1 May 1947) is a Scottish football player and coach. He was most recently the assistant manager of Aberdeen until leaving the club in March 2013. Knox worked with Alex Ferguson as an assistant manager at Aberdeen and Manch ...

left his post as Scotland's National Youth Teams Coach on 30 August 2007 to take up a full-time with

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pik ...

as coaching co-ordinator, Maurice Malpas took temporary charge. In January 2008 the SFA appointed a new full-time coach in

Billy Stark William Stark (born 1 December 1956) is a Scottish former football player and current coach. He made 500 league appearances in total, including successful spells at Aberdeen and Celtic. He then turned to management, which has seen him take car ...

, who left his job as

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activitie ...

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

side Queen's Park to take the position. Stark resigned from the position in November 2014.

Players

Leading appearances

Leading goalscorers

Eligibility

The team is for players born in the year 21 years before the starting year of each tournament. As each tournament normally takes two years to complete, players can continue to play for the under-21 team after their 22nd birthday. As long as they are eligible, players can play at any level, making it possible to play for the under-21s, senior side and then return to the under-21 side. It is now also possible to play for one country at youth level and another country at senior level (providing the player is eligible). For instance,

Nigel Quashie Nigel Francis Quashie ( ; born 20 July 1978) is an English-born Scottish former footballer who played more than 300 games as a midfielder in the Football League. Between 2004 and 2006, he represented Scotland, the country of his grandfather, a ...

played for England under-21s and

. Until the late 1980s, teams were allowed to select some over-age players in the under-21 team, similar to the present arrangement in

Current squad

The following players were selected for a

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

with

in November 2022. ''Caps and goals updated as of 17 November 2022, after the match against

. Clubs correct as of 25 September 2022.''

Recent call-ups

''The following players have also been called up to the Scotland under-21 squad and remain eligible (current clubs shown)''.

Past squads

* 1996 European Championship squad

Notes

References

External links

SFA (under 21s)

Uefa Under-21 website
Contains full results archive
Complete U21 results and player statistics
at ''FitbaStats''
Complete U23 results and player statistics
at ''FitbaStats'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Scotland National Under-21 Football Team European national under-21 association football teams F