As England ran roughshod over Portugal in their own backyard, hitting them for six with Arsenal’s rising star Max Dowman the conductor of this latest symphony with a goal and two assists, the question many were asking was: how on earth did this squad not qualify for the Under-19 Euros?
The finals, which will be held in North Wales this summer, will instead see Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain, and Ukraine, join tournament hosts Wales.
Max Dowman (Arsenal), Rio Ngumoha (Liverpool), Divine Mukasa (Man City, now on loan at Leicester), Jesse Derry and Shim Mheuka (Chelsea) have all broken into their respective first teams in varying capacity. Many of them seen across Europe as ‘superstar-potential’ talents.
And yet they won’t get a shot at a tournament this summer. Neither will England’s Under-17s, but more on them shortly.
For those unfamiliar with the process here, there are three phases in youth Euros: a qualifying round, an elite round and a final tournament.
In phase one, Will Antwi’s England won all three matches without conceding a goal. Then, ranked as a Pot One team for the elite round, they were paired with Portugal (Pot 2), Poland (Pot 3) and Serbia (Pot 4).
An England youth team featuring Max Dowman (bottom right) has failed to make the Under-19 Euros
Two more clean sheets followed, defeating Poland 1-0 and Portugal 6-0, the latter a breathtaking display.
But a 2-0 defeat to one of Serbia’s greatest young cores in a generation cost England. Five wins from six games, and five clean sheets, was not enough. Czechia was the only other Pot 1 team not to make the finals.
The surprise is perhaps… the fact that people are surprised.
England routinely bungle campaigns at younger age groups. Since winning the Under-19 Euros in 2022, they have reached the finals once in four years. Since winning it in 1993 they have won it just twice.
In 2023, England didn’t qualify despite winning all three qualifying group stage matches and topping their group.
With Kobbie Mainoo, Adam Wharton and Lewis Hall – all senior internationals now – in that iteration of the Under-19s, England hosted the Elite Round and again finished second, failing to qualify behind Iceland.
In 2024, England didn’t even make it to the Elite Round, finishing behind Austria and Montenegro in their group.
In 2025, England did at least make the finals, before losing in the final group stage to the Netherlands and Germany.
Serbia are very impressive and bolstered their own ranks with players capped in the senior side in striker Mihajlo Cvetković (Anderlecht, two senior caps) and Andrija Maksimović (RB Leipzig, eight senior caps) two super footballers who will no doubt be worth a fortune in the coming years.
AFC Bournemouth’s Veljko Milosavljević, who himself has two senior Serbia caps, also impressed in the past few weeks.
But coupled with the Under-17s missing out on qualifying for the Under-17 Euros, perhaps it is time the Football Association take a much closer look at why the age groups outside of the Under-21s are falling short so often.
Since making the semi-finals as a host nation in 2017, England’s Under-17s have failed to qualify for their age-specific Euros twice (2022, 2026) and have only made it to the quarter-finals once.
Rio Ngumoha also plays for the Young Lions but a bizarre system saw the team fall short
The Under-17 World Cup, FIFA’s premier competition at that age group, England have failed to qualify twice (2019, 2026) and have been eliminated in the last-16 to Uzbekistan (2023) and last-16 to Austria (2025) since winning it in 2017.
The Under-20 World Cup, England have failed to qualify for 13 out of 25 tournaments going back to 1977, with six first round exits to go along with that. Again, 2017, the golden year for the FA, was the only time they’ve won it.
In 2017 when England won the Under-20 World Cup, the Under-19 Euros, and the Under-17 World Cup with the likes of Phil Foden, Morgan Gibbs-White, Marc Guehi, Mason Mount, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and Callum Hudson-Odoi in full flight, optimism to go on and be the dominant force was high.
There is no divine right to make the latter stages of any tournament. Entitlement has perhaps seen cart go before horse too often.
Now, for all the praise that has come the way of player pathway for producing generational talents such as Dowman and Ngumoha, it’s time for the FA to look inward and ask just how such high-quality teams are falling short over and over again.
