France national under-21 football team

The France national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of France and is controlled by the French Football Federation. The team competes in the European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years.

Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, the French Under-21 team was formed. The team has a good record - it has finished first, second, third and fourth in the competition on one occasion each.

Since the under-21 competition rules insist that players must be 21 or under at the start ot a two year competition, technically it is an U-23 competition. For this reason, France's record in the preceding U-23 competitions is also shown. France did not enter a team in the first two U-23 competitions, but reached the quarter finals in the third.

UEFA U-23 Championship Record

• 1972: Did not qualify. Finished 4th of 4 in qualification group.
• 1974: Did not qualify. Finished 3rd of 3 in qualification group.
• 1976: Losing quarter-finalists.

UEFA U-21 Championship Record

• 1978: Did not qualify. Finished 3rd of 3 in qualification group.
• 1980: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 3 in qualification group.
• 1982: Losing quarter-finalists.
• 1984: Losing quarter-finalists.
• 1986: Losing quarter-finalists.
• 1988: Winners.
• 1990: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 4 in qualification group.
• 1992: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 5 in qualification group.
• 1994: Losing semi-finalists. Finished fourth.
• 1996: Losing semi-finalists. Finished third.
• 1998: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 5 in qualification group.
• 2000: Did not qualify. Finished 1st of 5 in qualification group. Lost qualification play-off.
• 2002: Runners-up.
• 2004: Did not qualify. Finished 1st of 5 in qualification group. Lost qualification play-off.
• 2006: Losing semi-finalists.
• 2007: Did not qualify. Lost qualification play-off.

Current squad

The following players have been called up to participate in a two-legged UEFA 2009 U-21 Championship play-off match against Germany on October 10 and October 15, 2008. Caps and goals are as current as the recent friendly match against Germany.

Current and recent players

Players born in 1986 or later are eligible for the 2007-09 UEFA European U-21 Championship, 1988 or later are eligible for the 2009-11 UEFA European U-21 Championship and so on. The Under-19 team will be the most obvious source of the next crop of Under-21s.

1986-born (eligible to 2009 UEFA European U-21 Championship) Sébastien Bassong Habib Bellaïd Alexandre Bonnet Yohan Cabaye Mohamed Chakouri Mathieu Coutadeur Mouhamadou Dabo Kevin Das Neves Didier Digard Franck Dja Djedje Ricardo Faty Abou Diaby Yohan Gouffran Yoann Gourcuff Geoffrey Jourdren Younes Kaboul Malaury Martin Florian Marange Sylvain Marveaux Yassin Moutaouakil Charles N'Zogbia Julien Quercia Mamadou Samassa Moussa Sow

1987-born (eligible to 2009 UEFA European U-21 Championship) Hatem Ben Arfa Karim Benzema Razak Boukari Clément Chantôme Issiar Dia Pierre Ducasse Karim El Mourabet Serge Gakpé Maxime Josse Larrys Mabiala Blaise Matuidi Jérémy Menez Samir Nasri Dimitri Payet Rémy Riou

Those players in italics have caps for the senior team. Details of exactly which players have been selected for the March 2007 fixture against Denmark and Norway are available here

See also: 2006 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship squads.

See also

• France national football team
• European Under-21 Football Championship

Sources/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.