Germany national under-21 football team

National under-21 football team
Name = Germany U-21
Badge = DFBTriangles.svg
Nickname = -
Association = Deutscher Fußball-Bund
Coach = flagicon|Germany Dieter Eilts (2004-)
Captain = Eugen Polanski
Most caps = Michael Zepek 50 Games
Top scorer = Erdal Kilicaslan 32 Goals
pattern_la1=_shoulder stripes black stripes half|pattern_b1=_germany2008|pattern_ra1=_shoulder stripes black stripes half
leftarm1=FFFFFF|body1=FFFFFF|rightarm1=FFFFFF|shorts1=100000|socks1=FFFFFF
pattern_la2=_germanyA|pattern_b2=_germany2008away|pattern_ra2=_germanyA
leftarm2=EF0000|body2=EF0000|rightarm2=EF0000|shorts2=EF0000|socks2=EF0000
First game = U-23: Turkey 0-2 West Germany
Ankara, October 18, 1970 U-21: Bulgaria 1-0 West Germany
Plovdiv, December 2, 1980
Largest win = U-23: West Germany 3-0 Turkey
Augsburg, April 24, 1971
U-21: Germany 8-0 Ireland
Baunatal, March 23, 1993
Largest loss = U-23: USSR 3-1 West Germany
Yerevan, April 29, 1972
U-21: Lost 3-1 on four occasions

(Records for competitive matches only)
UEFAu21Champ apps = 6
UEFAu21Champ first = 1982
UEFAu21Champ best = Runners-up 1982

The Germany national under-21 football team represents the under-21s of Germany in the UEFA U-21 Championship, and is controlled by the German Football Association, the governing body of football in Germany.

Before the reunification of Germany, East Germany and West Germany played as separate entities - the two teams played separately until summer 1990. Following the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976, international Under-21 football in Europe began. However, a West German team did not compete in the U-21 European Championship until the qualifying round (beginning in 1980) of the 1982 competition.

West Germany competed in the first two under-23 competitions, which finished in 1972 and 1974. The first under-21 competition finals were in 1978, and since the under-21 competition rules state that players must be 21 or under at the start ot a two year competition, technically it is an U-23 competition.

The current Germany team can be legitimately considered as the current incarnation of the West German team, since the West Germany flag, uniform and football association all became those of the unified Germany. In effect, the West German team absorbed the East German team to become 'the Germany national under-21 football team'.

For these reasons, the record of West Germany for the U-23 and U-21 competitions is shown below.

UEFA U-23 Championship Record

Competing as West Germany:
* 1972: Losing quarter-finalists.
* 1974: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 3 in qualification group.
* 1976: Did not enter.

Competing as East Germany:

* 1972: Did not qualify. Finished 3rd of 3 in qualification group.
* 1974: Runners-up. 3:2,0:4 versus Hungary
* 1976: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 3 in qualification group.

UEFA U-21 Championship Record

Competing as West Germany:
* 1978: Did not enter.
* 1980: Did not enter.
* 1982: Runners-up.
* 1984: Losing semi-finalists.
* 1986: Did not qualify. Finished 3rd of 4 in qualification group.
* 1988: Losing quarter-finalists.
* 1990: Losing quarter-finalists.East Germany:
* 1978: Runners-up. losing final vs Yugoslavia 0:1,4:4
* 1980: Runners-up. losing final vs Sovietunion 0:0,0:1
* 1982: Did not qualify. Finished 3rd of 4 in qualification group.
* 1984: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 3 in qualification group.
* 1986: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 4 in qualification group.
* 1988: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 4 in qualification group.
* 1990: Did not qualify. Finished 2rd of 4 in qualification group.Competing as unified Germany:
* 1992: Losing quarter-finalists.
* 1994: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 5 in qualification group.
* 1996: Losing quarter-finalists.
* 1998: Losing quarter-finalists.
* 2000: Did not qualify. Finished 2nd of 5 in qualification group. Were 9th best runner-up (top 7 qualified for playoffs)
* 2002: Did not qualify. Finished 3rd of 5 in qualification group.
* 2004: Finished 3rd of 4 in finals group.
* 2006: Finished 3rd of 4 in finals group.
* 2007: Did not qualify. Losing in playoff for Final Tournament

Players

Latest Squad

:Squad called up for the qualifier against Northern Ireland on September 5.
"(Caps and goals as of September 10, 2008)"

Current Crop

All of these players have been called up to the national under-21 team at least once.

Note: Players in bold have already been called up to the senior team.

See also

* UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship

External links

* [http://www.uefa.com/competitions/Under21 UEFA Under-21 website] Contains full results archive
* [http://www.rsssf.com/tablese/europe-u21.html The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation] Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships.
* [http://www.dfb.de/index.php?id=3135 Site of the Under-21 national team] at the German Football Association [http://www.dfb.de/index.php?id=104 homepage] .