Over the last years, a key emphasis was put on youth development for Portugal, as underlined at the last editions of the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship, the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship and the M20 EHF EURO. While a trophy has still eluded the European side, they have been actively becoming better and better, developing excellent players who made the step towards the senior team.

This will be the third consecutive edition of the IHF Men’s Youth World Championship which Portugal take part in, with the previous two bringing excellent results for the European side, a seventh place in 2017 and a fourth place in 2019, with an excellent generation led by Martim Mota da Costa or Salvador Salvador.

Last summer, Portugal ended up on the eighth place at the M18 EHF EURO 2022, with some ups and downs in their form, failing to contend for the title. This time around, their roster will be made up of several players from FC Porto, seven in their squad for the competition, but they will be missing one of the key players, Vasco Costa, who featured in the IHF Men’s Junior World Championship in June, where Portugal ended up on the sixth place. Right back Ricardo Machado is also absent due to an injury.

The European side will be heavily favoured to progress to the next phase in a group where they are clearly the team with the biggest chances to win against Rwanda and Algeria, but they will have their work cut out against hosts Croatia, a game which will probably decide the outcome of the competition and how far Portugal can go at the 2023 IHF Men’s Youth World Championship.

Key players: Eduardo Leite (right wing), Tiago Sousa (centre back), Nuno Oliveira (left wing)
Qualification for Croatia 2023: M18 EHF EURO 2022 – 8th place 
History in the tournament: 2017: 7th, 2019: 4th
Group at Croatia 2023: Group A (Portugal, Croatia, Rwanda, Algeria)