Portugal national under-21 football team
 | |||
| Nickname(s) | Esperanças (Hopes) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Association |
Federação Portuguesa de Futebol | ||
| Head coach | Rui Jorge | ||
| Captain | Sérgio Oliveira | ||
| Top scorer | Hugo Almeida (16) | ||
| |||
| First international | |||
 Portugal 3–1 South Africa  Lisbon, 16 November 1958 | |||
| Biggest win | |||
Portugal 8–1 Armenia  Estoril, 19 August 1997 | |||
| Biggest defeat | |||
|
matches only. | |||
| UEFA U-21 Championship | |||
| Appearances | 7 (first in 1994) | ||
| Best result | Runners-up in 1994, 2015 | ||
The Portugal national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Portugal and is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). They are nicknamed "Esperanças." Esperança means hope, thus they are Portugal's hopes for the future.
Following the realignment of UEFA'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 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
| Year | Round | Position | Games | Won | Drawn | Lost | GF | GA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Did not qualify | ||||||||
| 1980 | |||||||||
| 1982 | Did not enter | ||||||||
| 1984 | Did not qualify | ||||||||
| 1986 | |||||||||
| 1988 | |||||||||
| 1990 | |||||||||
| 1992 | |||||||||
 1994 |
Runners-up | 2nd | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 2 | |
 1996 |
Quarter-finals | 7th | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
 1998 |
Did not qualify | ||||||||
 2000 | |||||||||
 2002 |
Group stage | 5th | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | |
 2004 |
Third place | 3rd | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 11 | |
| 2006 |
Group stage | 6th | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
 2007 |
Group stage | 6th | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 2 | |
 2009 |
Did not qualify | ||||||||
 2011 | |||||||||
 2013 | |||||||||
 2015 |
Runners-up | 2nd | 5 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 1 | |
 2017 |
Qualified | ||||||||
| Total | Runners-up | 8/20 | 26 | 11 | 7 | 9 | 34 | 25 | |
- *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.
Current squad
- The following squad was selected for the friendly matches against Czech Republic on 11 November 2016 and Netherlands on 15 November 2016.
Players born in on or after 1 January 1994 are eligible for the current 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifiers
Caps and goals are correct as of 24 March 2016 after the game against Liechtenstein.
| # | Pos. | Player | Date of birth (age) | Caps | Goals | Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | GK | Bruno Varela | 4 November 1994 | 7 | 0 | Vitória de Setúbal
| ||
| - | GK | Joel Pereira | 28 June 1996 | 1 | 0 | Belenenses
| ||
| - | GK | Rui Silva | 7 February 1994 | 1 | 0 | Nacional | ||
| - | DF | Fernando Fonseca | 14 March 1997 | 1 | 0 | Porto B
| ||
| - | DF | Edgar Ié | 1 May 1994 | 4 | 1 | Villarreal B
| ||
| - | DF | Tobias Figueiredo | 2 February 1994 | 11 | 1 | Nacional
| ||
| - | DF | Rúben Semedo | 4 April 1994 | 2 | 1 | Sporting CP
| ||
| - | DF | Domingos Duarte | 10 March 1995 | 0 | 0 | Belenenses
| ||
| - | DF | Pedro Rebocho | 23 January 1995 | 1 | 0 | Moreirense
| ||
| - | DF | Simãozinho | 31 May 1995 | 0 | 0 | Braga B | ||
| - | MF | Rúben Neves | 13 March 1997 | 11 | 2 | Porto
| ||
| - | MF | Bruno Fernandes (captain) | 8 September 1994 | 9 | 2 |  Sampdoria
| ||
| - | MF | André Horta | 7 November 1996 | 1 | 0 | Benfica
| ||
| - | MF | João Carvalho | 9 March 1997 | 0 | 0 | Benfica B
| ||
| - | MF | Francisco Geraldes | 18 April 1995 | 0 | 0 | Moreirense
| ||
| - | MF | Rony Lopes | 28 December 1995 | 10 | 1 | Lille | ||
| - | FW | Bruma | 24 October 1994 | 7 | 2 |  Galatasaray
| ||
| - | FW | Iuri Medeiros | 10 July 1994 | 13 | 0 | Boavista
| ||
| - | FW | Daniel Podence | 21 October 1995 | 1 | 0 | Moreirense
| ||
| - | FW | Carlos Mané | 11 March 1994 | 14 | 3 | Stuttgart
| ||
| - | FW | Diogo Jota | 4 December 1996 | 2 | 0 | Porto
| ||
| - | FW | Gonçalo Guedes | 29 November 1996 | 3 | 1 | Benfica
| ||
| - | FW | Ricardo Horta | 15 September 1994 | 12 | 4 | Braga | ||
Previous squads
Head coaches
| Manager | Period | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Matches | Won | Draw | Lost | GF | GA | GD | |||
| Jesualdo Ferreira | 1996-2000 | ||||||||
| Agostinho Oliveira | 2001-2002 | ||||||||
| José Romão | 2002-2004 | ||||||||
| Agostinho Oliveira | 2004-2006 | ||||||||
| José Couceiro | 2006-2007 | ||||||||
| Rui Caçador | 2007-2009 | ||||||||
| Oceano Cruz | 2009-2010 | ||||||||
| Rui Jorge | 2010- | ||||||||
Honours
- UEFA Under-21 European Championship: Runners-up 2015
See also
References
External links
- UEFA Under-21 website Contains full results archive
- The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships.
- (Portuguese) Official site
| National teams | |
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| League system | |
| District Associations | |
| Domestic cups | |
| Defunct competitions | |
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