Croatia national under-21 football team

The Croatia national under-21 football team, also known as Croatia under-21(s) or Croatia U21(s) is a youth association football national team which represents Croatia at this age level and is a feeder team for the Croatia national football team.

This team is for Croatian 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, as Ivan Rakitić and Nikola Kalinić have done recently. It is also possible to play for one country at youth level and another at senior level (providing the player is eligible). For example, Ivan Rakitić is a former Switzerland U21 player who later became a Croatia international.

The under-21 age category came into existence with the realignment of UEFA's youth competitions in 1976. The Croatia U21 team was formed following Croatia's independence from SFR Yugoslavia in 1991 and is controlled by the Croatian Football Federation (from 1976 to 1990 Croatian players played for Yugoslavia U21). A goalless draw in a friendly against Italy played on 13 February 1992 was Croatia U21s' first result.

Competition history

As a European U21 team, Croatia compete for the European U21 Championship, with the finals held every odd-numbered year, formerly even-numbered years. There is no U21 World Cup, although there is an U20 World Cup. Since the Croatian Football Federation was recognised by UEFA in June 1993, in the middle of the two-year European Championship cycle, Croatia U21s began their first competitive campaign in 1994, in which they tried to qualify for the 1996 finals. They eventually finished 4th in a six-team group, with 5 wins out of 10 games and 4 points behind group winners Italy.

They failed to qualify for the next tournament in 1998, but then managed to win their first qualification for the 2000 tournament. However, they finished bottom of a four-team group in the group stage, losing to Netherlands and Czech Republic and drawing with Spain.

In their next five campaigns Croatia U21 managed to qualify for the finals only one more time (for the 2004 finals), but again they failed to progress past the group stage. They came close to qualifying for the 2002 and 2006 tournaments, as they had reached the qualification playoff round, but were knocked out by Czech Republic U21 and Serbia and Montenegro U21 respectively.

UEFA U-21 Championship record

2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship

Group 5

Current squad

The following is the list of players called up to the squad by manager Ivo Šušak for the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualification match against Estonia played on 14 November 2011.^[1]
Caps and goals listed refer to Croatia U21 team only, and are correct as of the last competitive match against Estonia U21 held on 14 November 2011. Sorted by caps.

Recent callups

The following players have also been called up to the Croatia U21 squad during the 2013 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship qualifications and were not named in the above squad list for various reasons, but are still eligible for selection.
Sorted by most recent callup.

Past squads

• 2000 UEFA U21 European Championship squad
• 2004 UEFA U21 European Championship squad

See also

• Croatia national football team
• Croatia U19 national football team
• Croatia U17 national football team
• UEFA U21 European Championship

References

External links

• Under-21 at UEFA.com
• U-23/U-21 Tournaments at the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation website
• Croatia youth teams players' statistics at the Croatian Football Federation website