Portugal national under-21 football team

The **Portugal national under-21 football team** is the national under-21 football team of Portugal. It is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). They are nicknamed _"Esperanças,"_ which means hope, as they are Portugal's hopes for the future.

### UEFA European Under-21 Championship

|Year|Round|Position|Games|Won|Drawn|Lost||||
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|1978|rowspan=2 colspan=8|_Did not qualify_||||||||
|1980||||||||||
|1982|colspan=8|_Did not enter_||||||||
|1984|rowspan=5 colspan=8|_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|rowspan=2 colspan=8|_Did not qualify_||||||||
|2000||||||||||
|2002|Group stage|5th|3|1|1|1|4|4||
|2004|**Third place**|**3rd**|**5**|**2**|**1**|**2**|**9**|**11**||
|style="border: 3px solid red"|2006|Group stage|6th|3|1|0|2|1|3|
|2007|Group stage|6th|4|1|2|1|5|2||
|2009|rowspan=3 colspan=8|_Did not qualify_||||||||
|2011||||||||||
|2013||||||||||
|2015|**Runners-up**|**2nd**|**5**|**2**|**3**|**0**|**7**|**1**||
|2017|Group stage||3|2|0|1|7|5||
|2019|colspan=8|_Did not qualify_||||||||
|2021|colspan=8|Qualified||||||||
|**Total**|**Runners-up**|**8/20**|**29**|**13**|**7**|**10**|**41**|**30**||
- _*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 in Portugal"

### Top appearances

|width = 6%|Rank|width = 27%|Player|width = 50%|Club(s)|width = 16%|Year(s)|width = 11%|U-21 Caps|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|**1**|Manuel Fernandes|Benfica, Portsmouth, Everton, Valencia|2004–2008|30||||||
|**2**|Silvestre Varela|Sporting CP, Casa Pia, Vitória Setúbal|2004–2007|28||||||
||Ricardo Quaresma|Sporting CP, Barcelona, Porto|2002–2006|28||||||
||João Pereira|Benfica, Gil Vicente, Braga|2004–2008|28||||||
||Fernando Brassard|Marítimo, Gil Vicente, Vitória Guimarães|1991–1994|28||||||
|**6**|Hugo Almeida|Porto, União Leiria, Boavista, Werder Bremen|2002–2007|27||||||
|**7**|Ednilson|Roma, Benfica|2000–2003|26||||||
||Raul Meireles|Aves, Boavista, Porto|2003–2006|26||||||
|**9**|Edgar|Alverca, Real Madrid, Málaga|1997–1999|25||||||
||Cândido Costa|Porto, Vitória Setúbal, Derby County|2000–2004|25||||||
**Note:** _Club(s)_ represents the clubs during the player's time in the Under-21s.

### Top goalscorers

|width = 6%|Rank|width = 27%|Player|width = 47%|Club(s)|width = 16%|Year(s)|width = 11%|U-21 Goals|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|**1**|Hugo Almeida|Porto, União Leiria, Boavista, Werder Bremen|2002–2007|16||||||
|**2**|Hélder Postiga|Porto, Tottenham|2001–2003|12||||||
||Toni|Porto, Braga|1992–1994|12||||||
|**4**|Paulo Costa|Alverca, Inter Milan, Reggina, Porto|2000–2002|9||||||
|**5**|Simão Sabrosa|Sporting CP, Barcelona|1998–2001|8||||||
||Rui Fonte|Arsenal, Crystal Palace, Sporting CP, Vitória Setúbal, Espanyol|2008–2012|8||||||
|**7**|Orlando Sá|Braga, Porto|2008–2010|7||||||
||Miguel Bruno|Feirense, Paços Ferreira, Beira-Mar|1992–1994|7||||||
||Dani|Sporting CP, West Ham United, Ajax|1995–1996|7||||||
||Ivan Cavaleiro|Benfica, Deportivo La Coruña|2013–2015|7||||||

**Note:** _Club(s)_ represents the clubs during the player's time in the Under-21s.

## Head coaches

|rowspan=2|Manager|rowspan=2|Period|colspan=8|Record|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|José Alberto Costa|–1993|||||
|Nelo Vingada|1994–1996|||||
|Jesualdo Ferreira|1996–2000|||||
|Agostinho Oliveira|2000–2002|||||
|Rui Caçador|2002|||||
|José Romão|2002–2004|||||
|Rui Caçador|2004|||||
|Agostinho Oliveira|2004–2006|||||
|José Couceiro|2006–2007|||||
|Rui Caçador|2007–2009|||||
|Oceano Cruz|2009–2010|||||
|Rui Jorge|2010–_present_|||||

## Honours

- UEFA Under-21 European Championship: 2015 (runner-up)

## Other websites

- Official site
- UEFA Under-21 website Contains full results archive
- The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation Contains full record of U-21/U-23 Championships.

## Infobox (national football team)

- **name**: Portugal Under-21
- **nickname**: _Esperanças_ (Hopes)
- **association**: _Portuguese Football Federation, Federação Portuguesa
de Futebol_
- **coach**: Rui Jorge
- **captain**: Diogo Queirós
- **most caps**: Manuel Fernandes (footballer, born 1986), Manuel Fernandes (30)
- **top scorer**: Hugo Almeida (16)
- **pattern la1**: _por20H
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- **first game**: 3–1
(Lisbon, Portugal; 16 November 1958)
- **largest win**: 0–9
 (Vaduz, Liechtenstein; 11 October 2018)
- **largest loss**: 6–0
Piacenza, Italy; 2 December 1987

_Records for competitive
matches only._
- **uefau21champ apps**: 8
- **uefau21champ first**: 1994 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, 1994
- **uefau21champ best**: Runners-up in 1994 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, 1994, 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship, 2015