UEFA European Under-21 Championship facts for kids

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UEFA European Under-21 Championship

Organising body	UEFA
Founded	1978; 47 years ago (1978)
Region	Europe
Number of teams	55 (total) 16 (finals)
Current champions	England (3rd title)
Most successful team(s)	Italy Spain (5 titles each)
Website	Official website: https://www.uefa.com/under21/

The UEFA European Under-21 Championship is a big football competition in Europe. It's often called the Euro Under-21. This tournament is for young male players under 21 years old from different European countries.

It happens every two years. Since 1992, winning or doing well in this competition also helps teams qualify for the Summer Olympics.

Italy and Spain are the most successful teams. They have both won the championship five times. England is the current champion. They won in 2023 by beating Spain 1–0 in the final match.

How the Tournament Started
How the Tournament Works
Past Winners
Team Achievements
Awards for Players
See also

How the Tournament Started

Trophy of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship

The Euro Under-21 competition as we know it today began in 1978. Before that, there were similar tournaments for young players.

From 1967 to 1970, there was a competition called the Under-23 Challenge Cup. Teams would challenge the winner to play a match. Only two teams, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, ever held that trophy.

In 1973, a proper Under-23 championship was created. Around 1980, UEFA, the main football body in Europe, changed its rules for youth tournaments. They decided to base them only on age limits.

The age limit was then lowered to 21 for the 1978 championship. It has stayed that way ever since. This means players must be 21 or younger when the qualification games start. Even if they turn 23 by the time of the final tournament, they are still allowed to play.

Under-21 matches used to be played on the day before the senior national teams played. They often used the same qualifying groups. However, this changed after the 2006 tournament.

The biggest crowd ever for an Under-21 match was in 2023. Over 44,000 fans watched the game between host country Georgia and Israel.

How the Tournament Works

The format of the tournament has changed over the years.

Before 1992, teams were put into eight groups for qualification. The eight group winners then played in quarter-finals. The winners of these games continued to play home and away matches until a champion was found.

For the 1994 and 1996 competitions, one of the semi-finalist countries hosted the final games. This included the semi-finals, a match for third place, and the final.

In 1998, more teams joined, so there were nine qualification groups. The best teams from these groups went straight to the finals. The other top teams played extra games to get a spot. The final matches were held in Romania that year.

The 2000 tournament had nine groups too. The winners and some runners-up played in special playoff games to decide the eight teams for the finals. Slovakia hosted the finals. For the first time, the tournament had a group stage in the finals. The winners of these groups played in the final match.

In 2002, they added a semi-finals round after the group stage. Switzerland hosted this tournament.

The tournament then switched to being held in odd-numbered years starting from 2007. This change was made so that young players had more time to develop in the Under-21 team. It stopped them from being moved to the senior team too early.

Since 2021, the final tournament has grown to include sixteen teams. This makes the competition even bigger and more exciting.

Past Winners

This table shows the winners and runners-up of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship. It also includes the earlier Under-23 championships.

Edition	Year	Hosts		Final				Losing semi-finalists			Number of teams
Edition	Year	Hosts		Winner	Score	Runner-up		Losing semi-finalists			Number of teams
1972–1976: Under-23 championships
1	1972	Home-and-away basis		Czechoslovakia	2–2 / 3–1 5–3 on aggregate	Soviet Union		Bulgaria and Greece			8 (23)
2	1974	Home-and-away basis		Hungary	2–3 / 4–0 6–3 on aggregate	East Germany		Poland and Soviet Union			8 (21)
3	1976	Home-and-away basis		Soviet Union	1–1 / 2–1 3–2 on aggregate	Hungary		Netherlands and Yugoslavia			8 (23)
Since 1978: Under-21 championships
Edition	Year	Hosts			Final				Losing semi-finalists (or third place match)			Number of teams
Edition	Year	Hosts	Winner		Score	Runner-up			Losing semi-finalists (or third place match)			Number of teams
1	1978	Home-and-away basis	Yugoslavia		1–0 / 4–4 5–4 on aggregate	East Germany	Bulgaria and England			8 (24)
2	1980	Home-and-away basis	Soviet Union		0–0 / 1–0 1–0 on aggregate	East Germany	England and Yugoslavia			8 (25)
3	1982	Home-and-away basis	England		3–1 / 2–3 5–4 on aggregate	West Germany	Scotland and Soviet Union			8 (26)
4	1984	Home-and-away basis	England		1–0 / 2–0 3–0 on aggregate	Spain	Italy and Yugoslavia			8 (30)
5	1986	Home-and-away basis	Spain		1–2 / 2–1 3–3 on aggregate (3–0 p)	Italy	England and Hungary			8 (29)
6	1988	Home-and-away basis	France		0–0 / 3–0 3–0 on aggregate	Greece	England and Netherlands			8 (30)
7	1990	Home-and-away basis	Soviet Union		4–2 / 3–1 7–3 on aggregate	Yugoslavia	Italy and Sweden			8 (30)
8	1992	Home-and-away basis	Italy		2–0 / 0–1 2–1 on aggregate	Sweden	Denmark and Scotland			8 (32)
9	1994	France	Italy		1–0 (aet)	Portugal	Spain		2–1	France	8 (32)
10	1996	Spain	Italy		1–1 (4–2 p)	Spain	France		1–0	Scotland	8 (44)
11	1998	Romania	Spain		1–0	Greece	Norway		2–0	Netherlands	8 (46)
12	2000	Slovakia	Italy		2–1	Czech Republic	Spain		1–0	Slovakia	8 (47)
13	2002	Switzerland	Czech Republic		0–0 (3–1 p)	France	Italy and Switzerland			8 (47)
14	2004	Germany	Italy		3–0	Serbia and Montenegro	Portugal		3–2 (aet)	Sweden	8 (48)
15	2006	Portugal	Netherlands		3–0	Ukraine	France and Serbia and Montenegro			8 (51)
16	2007	Netherlands	Netherlands		4–1	Serbia	Belgium and England			8 (51)
17	2009	Sweden	Germany		4–0	England	Italy and Sweden			8 (52)
18	2011	Denmark	Spain		2–0	Switzerland	Belarus		1–0	Czech Republic	8 (53)
19	2013	Israel	Spain		4–2	Italy	Netherlands and Norway			8 (53)
20	2015	Czech Republic	Sweden		0–0 (4–3 p)	Portugal	Denmark and Germany			8 (53)
21	2017	Poland	Germany		1–0	Spain	England and Italy			12 (53)
22	2019	Italy	Spain		2–1	Germany	France and Romania			12 (55)
23	2021	Hungary Slovenia	Germany		1–0	Portugal	Netherlands and Spain			16 (55)
24	2023	Romania Georgia	England		1–0	Spain	Israel and Ukraine			16 (54)
25	2025	Slovakia								16 (53)

Team Achievements

This table shows how many times each country has won, been runner-up, or finished third in the tournament.

Team	Winners	Runners-up	Third place
Spain	5 (1986, 1998, 2011, 2013, 2019)	4 (1984, 1996, 2017, 2023)	2 (1994, 2000)
Italy	5 (1992, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2004)	2 (1986, 2013)
Germany	3 (2009, 2017, 2021)	2 (1982, 2019)
England	3 (1982, 1984, 2023)	1 (2009)
Russia	2 (1980, 1990)
Netherlands	2 (2006, 2007)
Serbia	1 (1978)	3 (1990, 2004, 2007)
France	1 (1988)	1 (2002)	1 (1996)
Czech Republic	1 (2002)	1 (2000)
Sweden	1 (2015)	1 (1992)
Portugal		3 (1994, 2015, 2021)	1 (2004)
East Germany		2 (1978, 1980)
Greece		2 (1988, 1998)
Ukraine		1 (2006)
Switzerland		1 (2011)
Norway			1 (1998)
Belarus			1 (2011)

Awards for Players

Best Player of the Tournament

This award goes to the player who performs the best throughout the tournament. It used to be called the Golden Player award. Since 2013, a special team from UEFA chooses the official Player of the Tournament.

Year	Golden Player	Ref.
1978	Vahid Halilhodžić
1980	Anatoliy Demyanenko
1982	Rudi Völler
1984	Mark Hateley
1986	Manolo Sanchís
1988	Laurent Blanc
1990	Davor Šuker
1992	Renato Buso
1994	Luís Figo
1996	Fabio Cannavaro
1998	Francesc Arnau
2000	Andrea Pirlo
2002	Petr Čech
2004	Alberto Gilardino
2006	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
2007	Royston Drenthe
2009	Marcus Berg
2011	Juan Mata
2013	Thiago
2015	William Carvalho
2017	Dani Ceballos
2019	Fabián
2021	Fábio Vieira
2023	Anthony Gordon

Top Goal Scorer

The player who scores the most goals in the tournament receives the Top Scorer award. This used to be called the Golden Boot. Since 2013, the second and third highest goal scorers also get awards called the Silver Boot and Bronze Boot.

Year	First place	Goals	Second place	Goals	Third place	Goals
2000	Andrea Pirlo	3
2002	Massimo Maccarone	3
2004	Alberto Gilardino	4
2006	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar	4
2007	Maceo Rigters	4
2009	Marcus Berg	7
2011	Adrián	5
2013	Álvaro Morata	4	Thiago	3	Isco	3
2015	Jan Kliment	3	Kevin Volland	2	John Guidetti	2
2017	Saúl	5	Marco Asensio	3	Bruma	3
2019	Luca Waldschmidt	7	George Pușcaș	4	Marco Richter	3
2021	Lukas Nmecha	4	Patrick Cutrone	3	Dany Mota	3
2023	Sergio Gómez Abel Ruiz Heorhiy Sudakov	3

All-Time Best Team

On June 17, 2015, UEFA announced a special "dream team" of the best players from all past Under-21 final tournaments.

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Manuel Neuer	Branislav Ivanović Mats Hummels Alessandro Nesta Giorgio Chiellini	Frank Lampard Andrea Pirlo Xavi Mesut Özil	Francesco Totti Raúl