Israel U17

UEFA membership was still years away when Israel's football association put together an under-16 side to enter European competition, sending them into the 1987 championship despite the country not becoming a full UEFA member until 1994. That early entry, made under a format later folded into the under-17 age group in 2001, gave the team its Hebrew nickname, "The Boys."

The side reached the final tournament proper four times — in 2003, 2005, 2018 and, as hosts, in 2022 — and went out at the group stage on each occasion. Its one lasting mark on a major tournament came earlier, at the 1996 European Under-16 Championship, where a win over Greece in the third-place playoff secured bronze.

Without a ground of its own, the team moves between venues, most often Netanya Stadium, holding around 13,610, and Jerusalem's Teddy Stadium, with room for close to 32,000. Players train together at the Israel Football Association's national centre in Netanya, and it is there rather than on any particular pitch that the squad takes shape before matches.

Eden Karzev holds the team's appearance record, with 30 caps at this level, while Maor Buzaglo remains its leading scorer on nine goals. Others who came through the under-17 ranks went on to senior recognition, among them Bibras Natkho, who later captained the full national team.

Geography and politics have kept the fixture list narrow — matches against neighbours such as Jordan or Palestine have never been an option — so the side has built its record largely against the same European opposition it first faced in 1987, when UEFA membership was still not yet its own.