England women's national under-21 football team

In February 1987 the Women's Football Association (WFA) appointed Liz Deighan to run a women's national under-21 team. Deighan had been a star midfielder in the England team which reached the 1984 European Competition for Women's Football. Four years later Deighan was not re–appointed and John Bilton took over. The team folded shortly afterwards because the WFA had run out of money. Eight of England's squad at the 1995 FIFA Women's World Cup had come through Deighan's U-21 team, including Pauline Cope, Karen Burke and Louise Waller.[2]

In summer 2004, The Football Association (FA) decided to reconstitute the U-21 team in order to give women a higher level of play to better prepare them for the full national team. Senior team manager Hope Powell held a four-day camp in Shropshire and announced: "This is a major step forward for our international teams and will bridge the gap between Under-19 and Senior levels. We have been observing players in this age bracket for the last six months and with the clubs' assistance I believe we can make this a real success."[3] Powell installed her full-time assistant with the senior team, Brent Hills, as coach of the team, which remained an U-21 selection from 2004 through 2008.

2008 saw the change of England's youth national women's team moved to the U-23 level. The move was made by the FA in response to age-level changes FIFA had made to its oldest women's youth competition, now named FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. The age limit was raised from being a U-19 tournament to a U-20 tournament. This adjustment, coupled with a newly introduced U-23 age limit to the Nordic Cup, prompted the FA to rethink and eventually change the youth development team.

Following a review in September 2018, the FA announced the amalgamation of the U23s and U20s squads to reform an Under-21s age group, which would become the top tier of the nation's new professional development phase.[4] The move would align England's structure to that used in other European countries to allow for more age-appropriate games and better manage individual player development post-U20 World Cup for those who have genuine senior team potential. The FA's head of women's development Kay Cossington and senior team manager Phil Neville stressed the move as an important part of the wider, long-term plan prior to the following summer's World Cup. The then U20s manager Mo Marley was announced as the team's first head coach.

The following players have also been called up to the England under-21 squad within the last twelve months.

This list may be incomplete.

Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club	Latest call-up
GK	Sophie Baggaley	(1996-11-29) 29 November 1996	-	-	Bristol City	Nordic Tournament, October 2019
GK	Hannah Hampton	(2000-11-16) 16 November 2000	-	-	Birmingham City	Nordic Tournament, October 2019
DF	Anna Patten	(1999-04-20) 20 April 1999	-	-	South Carolina Gamecocks	v.  France, March 2020
DF	Georgia Eaton-Collins	(2000-06-09) 9 June 2000	-	-	Florida Gators	Nordic Tournament, October 2019
DF	Gabby George	(1997-02-02) 2 February 1997	-	-	Everton	Nordic Tournament, October 2019
MF	Amy Rodgers	(2000-05-04) 4 May 2000	-	-	Liverpool	v.  France, March 2020
MF	Georgia Allen	(1998-06-16) 16 June 1998	-	-	Ipswich Town	Nordic Tournament, October 2019
FW	Charlie Wellings	(1998-05-18) 18 May 1998	-	-	Bristol City	v.  France, March 2020
FW	Rinsola Babajide	(1998-06-17) 17 June 1998	-	-	Liverpool	Nordic Tournament, October 2019
FW	Ellie Brazil	(1999-01-10) 10 January 1999	-	-	Brighton & Hove Albion	Nordic Tournament, October 2019
FW	Lauren Hemp	(2000-08-07) 7 August 2000	-	-	Manchester City	Nordic Tournament, October 2019
FW	Alessia Russo	(1999-02-08) 8 February 1999	-	-	North Carolina Tar Heels	Nordic Tournament, October 2019