The final tournament of the 2008 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the 26th

UEFA European Under-17 Championship The UEFA European Under-17 Championship or simply UEFA Under-17 Championship, is an annual football competition contested by the European men's under-17 national teams of the member associations of UEFA. Spain is the most successful team in this ...

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 premier

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 ...

tournament for players under the age of 17. The tournament was held in

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

from 4 to 16 May 2008. Players born after 1 January 1991 were eligible to participate in this competition.

Qualification

Two rounds of qualifying were held in order to determine the seven teams to join the hosts, Turkey, at the final tournament. The

qualifying round Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

, held from 14 September to 28 October 2007, divided the 52 remaining UEFA nations into 13 groups of four. At the end of the qualifying round, the top two teams in each group and the two best third-placed teams qualified for the

elite round In political and sociological theory, the elite (french: élite, from la, eligere, to select or to sort out) are a small group of powerful people who hold a disproportionate amount of wealth, privilege, political power, or skill in a group. D ...

. The elite round, held from 13 to 31 March 2008, divided the remaining 28 teams into seven groups of four. At the end of the round, the top team in each group advanced to the final tournament.

Qualified teams

Squads

Group stage

Group A

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Group B

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Knockout stage

Semi-finals

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Final

Goalscorers

;4 goals *

Yannis Tafer Yannis Tafer (, born 11 February 1991) is a French professional footballer who plays as a winger for Luxembourger club Racing-Union. He is a France youth international having represented the country under-17, under-18, and under-19 level. ...

;3 goals *

Thiago Thiago is the Portuguese equivalent of the names Jacob and James. It is the archaic spelling of the name Tiago, presently mostly used in Brazil; in Portugal, the modern spelling largely prevails. * Thiago (footballer, born September 1988), full ...

Sergio García Sergio García Fernández (; born 9 January 1980) is a Spanish professional golfer. He has played on the European Tour, PGA Tour and LIV Golf Invitational Series. García has won 36 international tournaments as a professional, most notably th ...

;2 goals *

Geoffrey Castillion Geoffrey Wynton Mandelano Castillion (born 25 May 1991) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays as a striker. Besides the Netherlands, he has played in the United States, Romania, Hungary, Iceland, and Indonesia. Early and personal life He ...

Danijel Aleksić Danijel Aleksić (Serbian Cyrillic: Дaниjeл Aлeкcић; born 30 April 1991) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays for Turkish club İstanbul Başakşehir. Early life Born in Pula, SR Croatia, Yugoslavia, Aleksić was several months ...

Rubén Rochina Rubén Rochina Naixes (born 23 March 1991) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Granada CF as a winger or a forward. Rochina began his professional career with Barcelona B before joining Blackburn Rovers in 2011, spending three ...

* Keko *

Jorge Pulido Jorge Pulido Mayoral (born 8 April 1991) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a central defender for SD Huesca. Club career Atlético Madrid Born in Castillo de Bayuela, Castile-La Mancha, Pulido arrived in Atlético Madrid's yo ...

;1 goal *

Clément Grenier Clément Jean Camille Grenier (born 7 January 1991) is a French professional footballer who plays for La Liga club Mallorca. He has also represented France at senior and across all youth levels. Grenier plays in central midfield, as well as ...

* Timothée Kolodziejczak *

Alexandre Lacazette Alexandre Lacazette (born 28 May 1991) is a French professional footballer who plays as a forward for and is the captain of club Lyon. He plays mainly as a striker but has also been deployed as a second striker and wide forward. Lacazette b ...

* William Rémy *

Ricardo van Rhijn Ricardo is the Spanish and Portuguese cognate of the name Richard. It derived from Proto-Germanic ''*rīks'' 'king, ruler' + ''*harduz'' 'hard, brave'. It may be a given name, or a surname. People Given name * Ricardo de Araújo Pereira, Portug ...

Conor Hourihane Conor Geraroid Hourihane () (born 2 February 1991) is an Irish professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Derby County and the Republic of Ireland national team. His previous clubs include Aston Villa, Barnsley, Plymout ...

* Paul Murphy

Awards

*Golden Player:

uefa.com, accessed 12 May 2014. *Best Goalkeeper:

Vilson Caković Vilson Caković (Serbian Cyrillic: Вилсон Цаковић; born 22 February 1991) is a Serbian football goalkeeper who plays for the Swedish club Assyriska IK in the Division 1 Södra. He started his career in his birth town by playing f ...

References

UEFA.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:UEFA European Under-17 Championship 2008 2008 2007–08 in Turkish football 2007–08 in European football European 2008 2008 UEFA European Under-17 Championship 2008 UEFA European Under-17 Championship Youth football in Turkey May 2008 sports events in Europe 2008 in youth association football