As England stormed through Portugal on their home turf with a resounding 6-0 victory, led by Arsenal’s promising talent Max Dowman, who notched a goal and two assists, many were left wondering how this impressive squad failed to secure a spot in the Under-19 Euros.

This summer’s finals, set to unfold in North Wales, will feature Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain, and Ukraine, alongside the host nation, Wales. The absence of England in this lineup has raised eyebrows across the football community.

Max Dowman, along with Rio Ngumoha from Liverpool, Divine Mukasa from Manchester City (currently on loan to Leicester), and Chelsea’s Jesse Derry and Shim Mheuka, have all made their mark on their respective first teams. These young talents are regarded as potential superstars across the European football scene.

To understand how England missed out, it’s important to grasp the structure of the youth Euros, which consists of three phases: a qualifying round, an elite round, and the final tournament.

During the initial phase, under Will Antwi’s guidance, England showcased their prowess by winning all three matches without conceding a single goal. Entering the elite round as a Pot One team, they were grouped with Portugal, Poland, and Serbia, ranked as Pot Two, Pot Three, and Pot Four teams, respectively.

An England youth team featuring Max Dowman (bottom right) has failed to make the Under-19 Euros

In the elite round, England continued to demonstrate their defensive strength with two more clean sheets, edging out Poland with a 1-0 win and delivering a spectacular 6-0 thrashing to Portugal. Despite these achievements, their journey to the finals was unexpectedly cut short.

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.