The 2026 UEFA European Under-17 Championship was the 23rd edition of the UEFA European Under-17 Championship (42nd edition if the Under-16 era is also included), the annual international youth football championship organised by UEFA for the men's under-17 national teams of Europe. Estonia, which were selected by UEFA on 26 September 2023, hosted the tournament.

A total of eight teams played in the tournament, with players born on or after 1 January 2009 eligible to participate.

The tournament and its qualification acted as the UEFA qualifiers for the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The top 11 teams qualified for the 2026 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Qatar as the UEFA representatives.

Italy won the competition for the third time (second in the under-17 era) after defeating Belgium 4–3 on penalties in the final.

Qualification

Qualified teams The following teams qualified for the final tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics include only U-17 era (since 2002).

TeamQualification methodDate of qualificationAppearance(s)Previous best performance Host nation1stDebut 200220256 (2004, 2015, 2022) 2003202510 (2024) 1stDebut 200220241Semi-finals (2011, 2024) 200620252 (2007, 2015, 2018, 2025) 200220241 (2007, 2008, 2017) 200520241 (2005)

Venues The tournament was hosted in four venues. Tallinn Rakvere Lilleküla staadion Kalevi Keskstaadion Kadrioru staadion Rakvere staadion Capacity: 14,336 Capacity: 11,842 Capacity: 5,000 Capacity: 1,831

Squads

Group stage The group winners and runners-up advanced to the semi-finals.

Tie-breaking criteria for group playThe ranking of teams in the group stage was determined as follows:

Points obtained in all group matches; Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams; If more than two teams were tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams were still tied, all head-to-head criteria above were reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams; Goal difference in all group matches; Goals scored in all group matches; Penalty shoot-out if only two teams had the same number of points, and they met in the last round of the group and were tied after applying all criteria above (not used if more than two teams had the same number of points, or if their rankings were not relevant for qualification for the next stage); Disciplinary points UEFA coefficient for the qualifying round draw; Drawing of lots.

Group A

Group B

Knockout stage The winners of each group were paired with the runners-up of the other group, and the allocation of matches to stadiums was only confirmed on 1 June 2026 upon completion of the group stage. In the knockout stage, a penalty shoot-out was used to decide the winner if necessary (no extra time was played).

Bracket

Semi-finals

Final

Goalscorers

Awards The following awards were given after the conclusion of the tournament: Player of the Tournament: Ebrima Tunkara Top Scorer: Jakov Dedić

Team of the Tournament After the tournament, the Under-17 Team of the Tournament was selected by the UEFA Technical Observer panel.

PositionPlayerGoalkeeper Christian LupoDefender Mathis ChambonDefender Ludovico VaraliDefender Preben BlondeelDefender Sami El MorabetMidfielder Gianluca OkonMidfielder Frederik VestergaardMidfielder Ebrima TunkaraForward Diego PerilloForward Jakov DedićForward Jayden Onia Seke

Notes

References

External links