Spain national under-21 football team
The Spain national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Spain and is controlled by the Royal Spanish Football Federation. The team, nicknamed La Rojita (The Little Red [One]),[1] competes in the biennial UEFA European Under-21 Championship.
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| Nickname(s) | La Rojita (The Little Red [One]) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Association | Royal Spanish Football Federation | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Confederation | UEFA (Europe) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Head coach | Luis de la Fuente | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Captain | Bryan Gil | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Most caps | Gerard Deulofeu (36) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top scorer | Gerard Deulofeu (17) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| FIFA code | ESP | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| First international | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Yugoslavia 4–1 Spain  (Zagreb, Yugoslavia; 9 October 1976) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Biggest win | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Spain 14–0 San Marino  (El Ejido, Spain; 8 February 2005) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Biggest defeat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Netherlands 5–0 Spain (Utrecht, Netherlands; 16 February 1983) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| UEFA U-21 Championship | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Appearances | 13 (first in 1982) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Best result | Winners (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2019) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the Spanish under-21 team was formed. Spain has a strong record (competition winners five times and runners-up twice); having consecutively won the 2011 and 2013 Championships. They hold the joint record with Italy for the most wins of the competition.
Since the under-21 competition rules insist that players must be 21 or under at the start of a two-year competition, technically it is an U-23 competition. For this reason, Spain's brief record in the preceding U-23 competitions is also shown, though in actuality, Spain played only three competitive U-23 matches. The first was in the "under-23 Challenge", which they lost, while the next two were in a two-team qualification "group" for the 1972 competition (facing the Soviet Union team, they lost 2–1 at home then drew 1–1 away and failed to qualify. Spain did not enter a team in the other two U-23 competitions, but have been ever present in under-21 competitions).
Spain's youth development programs has been challenging the South American dominance in the FIFA U-17 World Championship and the FIFA U-20 World Cup. In fact, 20 of the Spanish 23-man squad that won the Euro 2008 came through the ranks of the youth teams; most of them had won titles at the youth level as well.