Wales national under-21 football team

Wales Under-21

Nickname(s)	Young Dragons
Association	Football Association of Wales
Confederation	UEFA (Europe)
Head coach	Geraint Williams
Most caps	Shaun MacDonald (25)
Top scorer	Ched Evans (13)
FIFA code	WAL
First colours Second colours
First international
England U-21 0–0 Wales U-21 (Molineux Stadium, Wolverhampton; 15 December 1976)
Biggest win
Wales U-21 6–2 Cyprus U-21  (Ninian Park, Cardiff; 22 October 1993) & Wales U-21 5–1 Luxembourg U-21  (Parc y Scarlets, Llanelli; 31 March 2009)
Biggest defeat
Italy U-21 8–1 Wales U-21 (Stadio Pietro Fortunati, Pavia; 5 September 2003)
UEFA U-21 Championship
Appearances	None (first in n/a)
Best result	1st of 5 in Qual. group, 2009. Lost in play off.

The Wales national under-21 football team, also known as the Wales U21s, is the national under-21 football team of Wales and is controlled by the Football Association of Wales. The team competes in the UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years. To date Wales haven't yet qualified for the finals tournament but in recent years have shown good form, losing in a playoff (5–4) to England in the 2009 qualifying campaign and finishing second in their group two years later, after leading their group until their last game Wales only needed a draw to qualify for the play-offs but lost 1–0 away to Italy.

The U-21 team came into existence following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976. A goalless draw in a friendly against England at Wolverhampton Wanderers' Molineux Stadium was Wales U21s' first result.

The national under-21 team is the highest level of youth football in Wales, and is open to any players who were born in Wales or whose parents or grandparents were born in Wales. This team is for Welsh players aged 21 or under at the start of a two-year European Under-21 Football Championship campaign, so players can be, and often are, up to 23 years old. Also in existence are teams for Under-20s (for non-UEFA tournaments), Under-19s and Under 17s. As long as they are eligible, players can play at any level, making it possible to play for the U21s, senior side and again for the U21s.

Recent history

In recent decades, the team has been viewed by the Welsh national management as more of a hole to be filled than a team to be used to nurture young international players, many of the great Welsh players of recent years having not spent long in the under-21 team. Ryan Giggs only made one appearance for the under-21 team before making his senior debut against Germany the next day.

From 2004 onward however, the former Wales national football team manager John Toshack and former Wales Under 21 manager Brian Flynn used the under-21 team to create a pool of youthful Welsh talent. The team now has a much better tracking system of young Welsh players, and has seen a marked improvement in players and team results. Recent results have seen them achieve big wins against Estonia (5–1), Northern Ireland (4–0) and France (4–2).

Some of the players who have made the step from the U21's to attain over 25 caps for the senior squad are Lewin Nyatanga, Joe Ledley, Chris Gunter, Gareth Bale, Sam Vokes, Simon Church, Wayne Hennessey, David Vaughan, Andrew Crofts, David Edwards, Andy King and Aaron Ramsey.

On 15 May 2008, they played a friendly against England U21s to mark the 100th match in the history of the side, losing 2–0.

A 3–0 victory against Romania in September 2008 meant that the Under-21 side finished top of their qualifying group for the first time in their history. It meant Wales would go into a two-legged play-off against England in October 2008 for a place in the finals of the 2009 UEFA U-21 Championship to be played in Sweden. Wales lost the playoff 5–4 over the course of two legs. Losing 3–2 at home in the first leg and drawing 2–2 away in the second.

Wales started their qualifying campaign for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship with a 1-0 away win against Andorra, a 3-1 away loss against Montenegro, a 1-0 home win against Montenegro, a 1-0 home defeat against Czech Republic and a 0-0 away draw against Armenia.

In May 2012 Brian Flynn vacated his position as Wales under-21 manager at the end of his contract and in July 2012 Geraint Williams was appointed team manager ^[1]

Players

Latest squad

Players born on or after 1 January 1994 are eligible for the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

Wales squad for the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship matches against Armenia on 11th October 2016. Ryan Hedges withdrew and was replaced by Owain Jones^[2]

Caps and goals as of 6 September 2016. Players in bold have attained full international caps. Clubs as of the date of the announcement.

0#0	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
	GK	Billy O'Brien	22 November 1995	8	0	Manchester City
	GK	Michael Crowe	13 November 1995	0	0	Ipswich Town
	DF	Declan John	30 June 1995	8	0	Cardiff City
	DF	Gethin Jones	13 October 1995	8	0	Everton
	DF	Tom Lockyer	3 December 1994	7	0	Bristol Rovers
	DF	Jordan Evans	23 September 1995	6	0	Wrexham
	DF	Dominic Smith	9 February 1996	2	0	Barrow (loan)
	DF	Connor Roberts	23 September 1995	1	0	Bristol Rovers (loan)
	DF	Joe Rodon	22 October 1997	1	0	Swansea City
	MF	Tommy O'Sullivan	18 January 1995	14	2	Cardiff City
	MF	Josh Sheehan	30 March 1995	11	0	Newport County (loan)
	MF	Regan Poole	18 June 1998	2	0	Manchester United
	FW	Ellis Harrison	29 January 1994	13	2	Bristol Rovers
	FW	Jake Charles	16 February 1996	8	2	Barnsley
	FW	Harry Wilson	22 March 1997	7	2	Liverpool
	FW	George Williams	8 July 1995	2	0	Milton Keynes Dons (loan)
	FW	Daniel James	10 November 1997	2	0	Swansea City
	FW	Owain Jones	1 October 1996	1	0	Swansea City

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up to the Wales under-21 squad and remain eligible.

Name	DOB	Club	Caps (goals)	Most recent call-up
Goalkeepers
Christian Dibble	11 May 1994	Boston United	1 (0)	v  Bulgaria, 31 March 2015
Defenders
Joe Wright	26 February 1995	Doncaster Rovers	2 (0)	v  Denmark, 2 September 2016
Adam Henley	14 June 1994	Blackburn Rovers	3 (0)	v  Denmark, 2 September 2016
Josh Yorwerth	1 January 1995	Crawley Town	7 (1)	v  Romania, 29 March 2016
Liam Shephard	22 November 1994	Yeovil Town (loan)	2 (0)	v  Bulgaria, 25 March 2016 (withdrew)
Jordan Williams	6 November 1995	Liverpool	1 (0)	v  Denmark, 9 October 2015 (withdrew)
Elliott Hewitt	30 May 1994	Notts County	10 (0)	v  Lithuania, 9 September 2014
Jordan Holt	4 May 1994	Free Agent	0 (0)	v  San Marino, 15 October 2013
Alex Nicholson	1 February 1994	Blyth Spartans	0 (0)	v  Moldova, 22 March 2013
Aaron Oakley	4 October 1994	Free Agent	1 (0)	v Iceland, 6 February 2013
Midfielders
Lee Evans	24 July 1994	Wolverhampton Wanderers	13 2)	v  Denmark, 2 September 2016
Declan Weeks	15 November 1995	Free Agent	2 (0)	v  Romania, 29 March 2016
Theo Wharton	15 November 1994	Cardiff City	1 (0)	v  Romania, 29 March 2016
Louis Thompson	19 December 1994	Norwich City	2 (0)	v  Bulgaria, 25 March 2016 (withdrew)
George Glendon	3 May 1995	Fleetwood Town (loan)	0 (0)	v  Bulgaria, 31 March 2015 (withdrew)
Billy Waters	15 October 1994	Cheltenham Town	0 (0)	v  Finland, 5 September 2014 (standby)
Alex Bray	25 July 1995	Swansea City	0 (0)	v  Finland, 5 September 2014 (standby)
Chris Dawson	2 September 1994	Rotherham United	2 (0)	v  Finland, 14 August 2013
Forwards
Ryan Hedges	8 July 1995	Yeovil Town (loan)	11 (0)	v  Armenia, 11 October 2016
Tom Lawrence	13 January 1994	Leicester City	8 (3)	v  Denmark, 2 September 2016 (senior squad)
Callum Saunders	26 September 1995	Crewe Alexandra	1 (0)	v  Romania, 17 November 2015
Bradley Reid	15 October 1995	Wrexham (loan)	1 (0)	v  Lithuania, 9 September 2014
James Loveridge	16 May 1994	Port Talbot Town	0 (0)	v  England, 19 May 2014

See also

• UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship
• Football Association of Wales
• Wales national football team
• Wales national under-19 football team
• Wales national under-17 football team

References

1. Williams appointed to Wales Under 21
2. "WALES U21 SQUAD ANNOUNCED: ARMENIA BRINGS CLOSURE TO U21 CAMPAIGN". faw.org.uk. Football Association of Wales. 24 August 2016. Retrieved 30 September 2016.

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.
• Football Association of Wales Contains fixtures/results and news for every Welsh national football team.