Romania U17 found out their opponents from the World Championship! » The “Tricolori” debut at the final tournament in Qatar
Article by Cosmin Nistor – Published on Thursday, 21 May 2026, 18:13 / Updated on Thursday, 21 May 2026 18:14
The Romanian U17 national team will participate for the first time in the World Football Championship, and on Thursday, May 21, the selected team prepared by Mircea Diaconescu found out their opponents in the final tournament hosted by Qatar, following the draw held in Zurich, Switzerland.
The little “tricolors”, made up of players born on or after January 1, 2009, were drawn in Group K, along with Mexico, Cameroon and Venezuela.
Romania, in the group with Mexico, Cameroon and Venezuela
The final tournament will take place between November 19 and December 13, 2026 and will bring together 48 national teams, divided into 12 groups of four teams each.
Following the draw, Romania ended up in group K with Mexico, Cameroon and Venezuela.
Romania, in the group with Mexico, Cameroon and Venezuela // Photo capture: Youtube @FIFA
Mexico is the opponent with the most important record in the group, the North Americans winning the U17 World Championship in 2005 and 2011, but also playing in two other finals, in 2013 and 2019.
For Romania, this will be the first ever participation in a U17 World Championship.
How Romania qualified for the U17 WC
The national team trained by Mircea Diaconescu qualified after an excellent campaign in the last phase of the EURO 2026 preliminaries. Romania finished among the best teams ranked second and thus got the ticket for the World Cup in Qatar.
The results of the “tricolors” in the qualification group:
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5-2 with Iceland
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1-0 with Portugal
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1-2 with Italy
The decider for first place was lost to Italy, the hosts of the qualifying mini-tournament, but the victory against Portugal weighed heavily in the economy of the qualification.
All groups of the U17 World Championship
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Group A: Qatar, Panama, Egypt, Greece
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Group B: South Korea, CAF 1, New Caledonia, Ecuador
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Group C: Argentina, Australia, CAF 2, Denmark
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Group D: France, Haiti, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay
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Group E: Italy, Jamaica, Ivory Coast, Uzbekistan
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Group F: Senegal, Croatia, Cuba, Tajikistan
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Group G: Mali, New Zealand, Belgium, Vietnam
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Group H: Spain, China, Fiji, Morocco
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Group I: Brazil, Ireland, Tanzania, Costa Rica
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Group J: USA, Montenegro, Chile, Algeria
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Group K: Mexico, Romania, Cameroon, Venezuela
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Group L: Japan, Colombia, Serbia, Honduras
