Netherlands U18

The Johan Cruijff Arena holds 55,000 and rarely fills anywhere near that for these fixtures. Training itself happens away from Amsterdam entirely, at Sportcentrum Papendal in the woods near Arnhem, where the squad prepares before travelling in for matches.

The side is not a club in the ordinary sense but the KNVB's selection for players born within the age bracket. Its first official fixture was a 1-1 draw away to Luxembourg on 15 May 1969, and the team's single mark on the record books predates even that: runners-up at the 1949 FIFA Youth Tournament Under-18, beaten 4-1 by France.

What the age group is for now is less about silverware than about who passes through it on the way up. Noa Lang scored a hat-trick against the Czech Republic while wearing the shirt; Cody Gakpo and Donyell Malen both came through the same set-up before their senior careers took off. Adil Ramzi took over as head coach in the summer of 2024, appointed that July after a spell as a PSV assistant under Mark van Bommel, succeeding Mischa Visser, who had guided the age group before moving up to the under-19s and leaving the federation in February of that year. Recent fixtures have run against France, Turkey, Sweden, Italy and Germany.