Cyprus national under-21 football team

Cyprus U21
Nickname(s)	Εθνική Ελπίδων ; ("National team of Hopes")
Association	Cyprus Football Association
Head coach	Vacant
Captain	Andreas Frangos
Most caps	Marios Christodoulou (27)
Top scorer	Christos Poyiatzis & Giorgos Nicolaou (5)
First colours	Second colours
First international
	Cyprus 0 - 0 Spain ; (Nicosia, Cyprus; 1978)
Biggest win
	Cyprus 6 - 0 San Marino ; (Nicosia, Cyprus; 2011)
Biggest defeat
	France 9 - 0 Cyprus ; (Grenoble, France; 2023)
UEFA U-21 Championship
Appearances	None

The Cyprus national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team for Cyprus. It is controlled by the Cyprus Football Association.

The team drew their first official match 0–0 in 1978 at home to Spain in a qualifying match for the 1980 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. They then drew 0–0 with the trophy holders Yugoslavia, also at home. They lost both away games though. And finished last in the group of three teams, with two points from four games, and so did not qualify for the Finals.

In the qualifying stages for the 1982 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, Cyprus made history when they defeated France 2–1 in Cyprus as it was the countries first ever official victory at National or Under-21 football level. The scorer of the Cypriot goals was Islington born Kikis Kyriacou of Olympiakos Nicosia whose promising career was brought to a premature end following a horrific leg injury.

In the qualifying stages for the 1992 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, the team beat Greece 1-0 and drew 1–1 with Sweden who went on to reach the Final. Cyprus finished last in their qualifying group with three points, the same number as Greece.

The Under 21 team made gradual improvements and in September 1999, in a qualifying match for the 2000 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship, drew 1–1 in Spain, the eventual winners of the competition. The team finished fourth out of five teams in their qualifying group, ahead of Austria.

The qualifying stages for the 2004 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship provided the greatest achievement for the Cyprus under-21 national team to date, when they finished second in Qualification Group One, with 15 points, winning five of their eight matches. France won the group with 22 points, seven points ahead of Cyprus.

In 2004, Cyprus joined the European Union, and Cypriot teams took advantage of the Bosman rule bringing in foreign players. This has meant that young Cypriot players are now not as common in the Cypriot First Division and is therefore also having an adverse effect on the under-21 national team.

European Championship record Under-21

UEFA European Under-21 Championship record									UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship Qualification record
Year	Round	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1978	did not enter								-
1980^[1]	did not qualify								4	0	2	2	1	5	−4
1982^[2]									4	1	0	3	4	7	−3
1984^[3]									6	0	0	6	4	14	−10
1986^[4]									6	0	2	4	3	13	-10
1988^[5]									6	1	0	5	4	18	−14
1990^[6]									4	0	1	3	0	3	−3
1992^[7]									6	1	1	4	3	15	−12
1994^[8]									8	0	0	8	4	21	−17
1996^[9]									10	3	1	6	10	25	−15
1998^[10]									8	3	1	4	16	15	+1
2000^[11]									8	1	3	4	7	18	−11
2002^[12]									8	3	0	5	9	17	−8
2004^[13]									8	5	0	3	12	5	+7
2006^[14]									8	0	1	7	2	17	-15
2007^[15]									2	0	0	2	0	3	−3
2009^[16]									8	2	0	6	9	15	−6
2011^[17]									8	2	0	6	8	13	−5
2013^[18]									10	4	0	6	16	20	−4
2015^[19]									8	2	0	6	7	21	−14
2017									5	0	1	4	2	12	−10
2019	Qualification in progress								8	2	0	6	7	18	-11
Total	0/21	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	139	32	19	99	132	286	−154

UEFA U-21 Euro 2019 qualification

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Belgium	10	8	2	0	23	5	+18	26	Final tournament	—	1–1	0–0	3–0	3–2	2–1
2	Sweden	10	6	2	2	19	8	+11	20		0–3	—	0–1	1–0	4–1	3–0
3	Turkey	10	5	2	3	14	10	+4	17		1–2	0–3	—	0–0	4–0	4–2
4	Hungary	10	3	2	5	12	14	−2	11		0–3	2–2	1–2	—	4–0	2–1
5	Cyprus	10	2	1	7	8	23	−15	7		0–2	0–1	2–1	0–2	—	2–1
6	Malta	10	1	1	8	8	24	−16	4		0–4	0–4	0–1	2–1	1–1	—

Source: UEFA

1 September 2017 (2017-09-01)	Cyprus	2–1	Malta	AEK Arena, Larnaca
18:00	Anastasiou 41' Iosifidis 90+3'	Report	Borg 34'	Referee: Stefan Apostolov (Bulgaria)

5 September 2017 (2017-09-05)	Sweden	4–1	Cyprus	Falkenbergs IP, Falkenberg
18:45	Strandberg 3', 5', 38' Rakip 90+1'	Report	Elia 90+3'	Referee: Omar Pashayev (Azerbaijan)

5 October 2017 (2017-10-05)	Cyprus	2–1	Turkey	AEK Arena, Larnaca
16:00	Karo 53' Soteriou 58'	Report	Çınar 41'	Referee: Daniel Siebert (Germany)

10 October 2017 (2017-10-10)	Cyprus	0–2	Belgium	AEK Arena, Larnaca
16:00		Report	Lukebakio 51' Bastien 90+3'	Referee: Kirill Levnikov (Russia)

9 November 2017 (2017-11-09)	Belgium	3–2	Cyprus	Den Dreef, Leuven
20:00	Mbenza 15' Dimata 45+2' Leya Iseka 90+2'	Report	Papageorgiou 49' Frangos 75'	Referee: Enea Jorgji (Albania)

14 November 2017 (2017-11-14)	Cyprus	0–2	Hungary	AEK Arena, Larnaca
15:00		Report	Sallói 50' Haris 80'	Referee: Horatiu Fesnic (Romania)

22 March 2018 (2018-03-22)	Hungary	4–0	Cyprus	Hidegkuti Nándor Stadion, Budapest
20:00	Bíró 8' Szalai 23' Kyriakou 49' (o.g.) Zsótér 75'	Report		Referee: Rob Harvey (Republic of Ireland)

27 March 2018 (2018-03-27)	Cyprus	0–1	Sweden	AEK Arena, Larnaca
14:00		Report	Brorsson 90+7'	Referee: Fabio Verissimo (Portugal)

7 September 2018 (2018-09-07)	Turkey	4–0	Cyprus	Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Istanbul
18:00 (19:00 TRT)	Demirbağ 3' Çınar 76', 81' (pen.) Hadjipaschalis 88' (o.g.)	Report		Referee: Danilo Grujić (Serbia)

16 October 2018 (2018-10-16)	Malta	1–1	Cyprus	Centenary Stadium, Ta' Qali
17:00	Nwoko 90+2'	Report	Wheeler 35'	Referee: Admir Šehović (Bosnia and Herzegovina)

Friendly matches

20 May 2018	Russia	3–0	Cyprus	Eduard Streltsov Stadium, Moscow, Russia
14:00 UTC+2	Oblyakov 72' Melkadze 82' Makarov 84'	Report		Referee: Vitali Meshkov (Russia)

Coaching staff

Position^[20]	Name
Coach	Nikos Andronikou
Assistant coach	Venizelos Tziambazis
Goalkeeper coach	Christoforos Loizou
Fitness coach	Constantinos Rostantis

Players

Current squad

Players born on or after 1 January 2004 are eligible for 2027 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualifying games.^[21]

The following players were called up for the 2027 UEFA European Under-21 Championship qualification Group A matches against Romania, Kosovo and San Marino on 25, 30 September and 6 October 2026; respectively.^[22]

Caps and goals correct as of 6 October 2026, after the match against San Marino.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	1GK	Panagiotis Kyriakou	(2004-05-05) 5 May 2004 (age 22)	15	0	AEL Limassol
12	1GK	Gabriel Ortelli	(2006-06-19) 19 June 2006 (age 20)	3	0	Watford
22	1GK	Pantelis Michail	(2005-10-27) 27 October 2005 (age 21)	0	0	Omonia
	1GK	Anastasios Pisiias	(2006-12-19) 19 December 2006 (age 19)	0	0	APEA Akrotiri

2	2DF	Nearchos Zinonos	(2004-01-29) 29 January 2004 (age 22)	18	3	Apollon Limassol
3	2DF	Nikolaos Koutsoudakis	(2007-07-16) 16 July 2007 (age 19)	3	0	Hellas Syros
4	2DF	Konstantinos Venizelou	(2004-07-05) 5 July 2004 (age 22)	17	1	Krasava ENY Ypsonas
5	2DF	Giorgos Viktoros	(2005-09-01) 1 September 2005 (age 21)	16	0	Omonia
13	2DF	Konstantinos Panteli	(2005-02-12) 12 February 2005 (age 21)	8	1	Omonia Aradippou
14	2DF	Georgios Nikolas Angelopoulos	(2004-05-05) 5 May 2004 (age 22)	17	0	APOEL
15	2DF	Andreas Nikolaou	(2006-03-31) 31 March 2006 (age 20)	3	0	Omonia Aradippou
18	2DF	Kyriakos Kyriakou	(2006-02-03) 3 February 2006 (age 20)	4	1	AEL Limassol
21	2DF	Konstantinos Poursaitidis	(2006-01-24) 24 January 2006 (age 20)	6	1	APOEL

6	3MF	Zacharias Ioannidis	(2007-03-27) 27 March 2007 (age 19)	4	0	Luton Town
7	3MF	Argyris Christodoulou	(2007-03-01) 1 March 2007 (age 19)	6	0	Famalicão
8	3MF	Stylianos Vrontis	(2004-11-05) 5 November 2004 (age 22)	24	1	APOEL
11	3MF	Konstantinos Evripidou	(2005-04-26) 26 April 2005 (age 21)	8	0	Omonia Aradippou
16	3MF	Konstantinos Pattichis	(2004-08-05) 5 August 2004 (age 22)	9	0	PAC Omonia 29M
17	3MF	Andreas Athanasiou	(2004-04-24) 24 April 2004 (age 22)	10	1	Krasava ENY Ypsonas
19	3MF	Dimitrianos Tzouliou	(2006-01-19) 19 January 2006 (age 20)	8	0	Anorthosis Famagusta
23	3MF	Ioannis Avramidis	(2006-01-30) 30 January 2006 (age 20)	3	0	APOEL

9	4FW	Evagoras Charalampous	(2005-06-27) 27 June 2005 (age 21)	11	2	Anorthosis Famagusta
10	4FW	Zanos Savva	(2005-11-26) 26 November 2005 (age 20)	9	1	Olympiakos Nicosia
20	4FW	Savvas Kontopoulos	(2008-04-07) 7 April 2008 (age 18)	3	1	Digenis Akritas Morphou
	4FW	Chrysis Evangelou	(2007-11-03) 3 November 2007 (age 19)	5	0	Omonia
	4FW	Lysandros Papastylianou	(2005-11-29) 29 November 2005 (age 20)	4	1	Krasava ENY Ypsonas
	4FW	Simonas Christofi	(2007-10-31) 31 October 2007 (age 19)	0	0	AEL Limassol

Recent call-ups

The following players have also been called up for Cyprus under-21's within the last twelve months and remain eligible for selection.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Konstantinos Stylianou	(2004-12-05) 5 December 2004 (age 21)	5	0	Apollon Limassol	v. Montenegro, 5 June 2026

DF	Konstantinos Giannakou	(2005-04-25) 25 April 2005 (age 21)	11	0	APOEL	v. Montenegro, 5 June 2026
DF	Harry Mills	(2006-03-17) 17 March 2006 (age 20)	4	0	Brighton & Hove Albion	v. Montenegro, 5 June 2026
DF	Andreas Christou	(2005-08-05) 5 August 2005 (age 21)	5	0	Omonia	v. Finland, 31 March 2026
DF	Charalampos Erotokritou	(2005-09-01) 1 September 2005 (age 21)	0	0	Doxa Katokopias	v. Finland, 31 March 2026
DF	Charalampos Michalas	(2007-07-16) 16 July 2007 (age 19)	0	0	Anorthosis Famagusta	v. Finland, 31 March 2026

MF	Panagiotis Angeli	(2006-03-22) 22 March 2006 (age 20)	1	0	Olympiakos Nicosia	v. Montenegro, 5 June 2026

FW	Konstantinos Panagi	(2007-04-23) 23 April 2007 (age 19)	1	0	Omonia	v. Montenegro, 5 June 2026
FW	Nikolas Tsiattalas	(2007-02-17) 17 February 2007 (age 19)	1	0	Iraklis Gerolakkou	v. Montenegro, 5 June 2026
FW	Charalampos Kattirtzis	(2006-04-12) 12 April 2006 (age 20)	0	0	PAEEK Kyrenia	v. Montenegro, 5 June 2026
FW	Dimitris Solomou	(2006-10-16) 16 October 2006 (age 20)	5	0	Enosis Neon Paralimniou	v. Finland, 31 March 2026
FW	Michalis Theodosiou	(2008-07-24) 24 July 2008 (age 18)	5	0	Aris Limassol	v. Finland, 31 March 2026

References

↑ Europe U-21 Championship 1980
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 1982
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 1984
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 1986
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 1988
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 1990
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 1992
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 1994
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 1996
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 1998
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 2000
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 2002
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 2004
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 2006
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 2007
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 2009
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 2011
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 2013
↑ Europe U-21 Championship 2015
↑ "Cyprus U21 staff". Cyprus FA. Archived from the original on 2017-06-06. Retrieved 2018-06-17.
↑ "Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship". UEFA. 5 February 2025. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
↑ "Κλήση για τους αγώνες με Ρουμανία, Κόσοβο και Σαν Μαρίνο" (in Greek). Κυπριακή Ομοσπονδία Ποδοσφαίρου. 18 September 2026. Retrieved 27 September 2026.

External links

[1] Europe U-21 Championship 1980

[2] Europe U-21 Championship 1982

[3] Europe U-21 Championship 1984

[4] Europe U-21 Championship 1986

[5] Europe U-21 Championship 1988

[6] Europe U-21 Championship 1990

[7] Europe U-21 Championship 1992

[8] Europe U-21 Championship 1994

[9] Europe U-21 Championship 1996

[10] Europe U-21 Championship 1998

[11] Europe U-21 Championship 2000

[12] Europe U-21 Championship 2002

[13] Europe U-21 Championship 2004

[14] Europe U-21 Championship 2006

[15] Europe U-21 Championship 2007

[16] Europe U-21 Championship 2009

[17] Europe U-21 Championship 2011

[18] Europe U-21 Championship 2013

[19] Europe U-21 Championship 2015

[20] "Cyprus U21 staff". Cyprus FA. Archived from the original on 2017-06-06. Retrieved 2018-06-17.

[21] "Regulations of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship". UEFA. 5 February 2025. Retrieved 29 August 2025.

[22] "Κλήση για τους αγώνες με Ρουμανία, Κόσοβο και Σαν Μαρίνο" (in Greek). Κυπριακή Ομοσπονδία Ποδοσφαίρου. 18 September 2026. Retrieved 27 September 2026.

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v t e Football in Cyprus
League system	First Division Second Division Third Division STOK Elite Division Women's First Division
Cup competitions	Cypriot Cup Super Cup Lower Divisions' Cup Women's Cup Women's Super Cup
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