Selección Española Femenina Sub-17 · History

La Ciudad del Fútbol in Las Rozas is the headquarters of the Royal Spanish Football Federation. It opened on 12 May 2003 and is the home of the Spain women's national under-17 football team. The team played its first recorded match there on 5 November 2007, a 1-1 draw with the Czech Republic. The side is made up of players under 17. It competes in the UEFA Women's Under-17 Championship and the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup. Spain have won five European titles (2010, 2011, 2015, 2018 and 2024) and two World Cups (2018 and 2022).

Early years and the European titles of 2010 and 2011

Spain did not qualify for the first Under-17 Championship in 2008. They reached their first final tournament in 2009, in Nyon, Switzerland. They made it to the final there and lost 7-0 to Germany on 25 June. A year later they went back to the same venue and won the title, drawing 0-0 with the Republic of Ireland in the final before winning the shoot-out 4-1. In 2011, again in Switzerland, they kept the trophy with a 1-0 win over France. In 2010, between those two European titles, Spain played their first World Cup, in Trinidad and Tobago, and finished third.

Runners-up finishes and the 2015 title

Spain failed to reach the 2012 final tournament. At the 2013 European Championship they finished third after a 4-0 win over Belgium in the third-place match. In 2014 they played in two finals. The European final, in England, ended 1-1 against Germany and Spain lost the shoot-out 3-1. The World Cup final, in Costa Rica, went to Japan, who were winning the competition for the first time. In 2015 Spain won their third European title in Iceland, beating Switzerland 5-2 in the final. The following year, at the World Cup in Jordan, they finished third again.

The 2016 and 2017 finals

Germany were also the opponents in the European finals of 2016 and 2017. Both ended goalless and went to penalties. In Belarus in 2016 the Germans won the shoot-out 3-2, and in the Czech Republic in 2017 they won it 3-1. On 2 October 2017, in qualifying for the 2018 European Championship, Spain beat Montenegro 22-0 in Baku.

The 2018 double

In 2018, with María Antonia “Toña” Is as head coach, Spain won both competitions in their age group. The first was the European Championship in Lithuania, where they beat Germany 2-0 in the final. The World Cup in Uruguay followed in November. Spain topped their group with seven points, ten goals scored and one conceded, and knocked out the defending champions North Korea in the quarter-finals. The final was played on 1 December 2018 at the Estadio Charrúa in Montevideo. Spain beat Mexico 2-1 with two goals from Claudia Pina, in the 16th and 26th minutes, and Denise Castro scored for Mexico in the 29th. It was the first world title won by any Spanish women's national team. Pina finished the tournament with seven goals and received the Golden Ball, and goalkeeper Catalina Coll won the Golden Glove.

A second World Cup in 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 European Championship, and there was no World Cup in this age group again until 2022. That year Spain reached another European final, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they drew 2-2 with Germany and lost the shoot-out 3-2. A few months later, coached by Kenio Gonzalo, they travelled to the World Cup in India. On 30 October 2022, at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, they beat Colombia 1-0 through an 82nd-minute own goal by Ana Guzmán. With that win Spain retained the world title they had first won in Uruguay.

The 2024 European title and the Santo Domingo final

In 2023 Spain lost the European final in Estonia 3-2 to France. The following year, in Sweden, they won all five matches at the final tournament, scoring nineteen goals and conceding one, and took their fifth European title by beating England 4-0 in the final. At the 2024 World Cup in the Dominican Republic they did not lose a match in normal time: five wins and one draw. The draw came in the final, played on 3 November 2024 at the Estadio Olímpico Félix Sánchez in Santo Domingo in front of 18,410 spectators. It finished 1-1 against North Korea, and Spain lost the shoot-out 4-3.