More joy for Spain's Jesé with U19 scoring honour

For the third season in a row a Spain player finished as top scorer at the UEFA European Under-19 Championship, Jesé Rodríguez taking the prize after scoring the only goal in the final against Greece.

The Real Madrid CF forward managed five goals in his four appearances in Estonia, with his personal highlight either a hat-trick against Portugal on matchday two or the composed finish ten minutes from time in the final. His tally ensured he followed in the footsteps of Daniel Pacheco, who managed four goals in the 2010 tournament, and Álvaro Morata, who struck six in Romania 12 months ago.

Jesé finished with two goals more than Giorgos Katidis and Dimitris Diamantakos, whose Greece side Spain overcame in the showpiece, with nine players on two goals including Spain's Paco Alcácer and Gerard Deulofeu. Nineteen players managed one goal each.

Overall the top scorer was Portugal's Betinho, whose ten goals included eight in qualifying, Diamantakos in second place on eight. Jesé finished with six goals in qualifying and the final tournament, the same total as Katidis in joint third position.

The highest total for a U19 finals is Morata's six in the 2010/11 tournament, one more than Spain's Alberto Bueno and İlhan Parlak of Turkey (both 2006) and Serbia and Montenegro's Borko Veselinović (2005), who all scored five goals. Veselinović, however, still holds the U19 record for the most goals scored in a season having managed 11 in 2004/05.

2011/12 UEFA European Under-19 Championship top scorers
Finals
5 Jesé Rodríguez (Spain)
3 Giorgos Katidis (Greece)  
3 Dimitris Diamantakos (Greece)
2 Mihael Pongračić (Croatia)  
2 Betinho (Portugal)  
2 Domagoj Pavičić (Croatia)  
2 André Gomes (Portugal)
2 Paco Alcácer (Spain)
2 Benik Afobe (England)
2 Paul Pogba (France)
2 Gerard Deulofeu (Spain)
2 Samuel Umtiti (France) 

Overall
10 Betinho (Portugal)
8 Dimitris Diamantakos (Greece)
6 Philipp Hofmann (Germany)
6 Giorgos Katidis (Greece)
6 Jesé Rodríguez (Spain)
5 Cristian Gavra (Romania)
5 Pieros Sotiriou (Cyprus)

Previous finals top scorers
2011 6 Álvaro Morata (Spain)
2010 4 Daniel Pacheco (Spain)
2009 4 Nathan Delfouneso (England)
2008 4 Tomáš Necid (Czech Republic)
2007 3 Anis Ben-Hatira (Germany), Kostas Mitroglou (Greece)
2006 5 Alberto Bueno (Spain), İlhan Parlak (Turkey)
2005 5 Borko Veselinović (Serbia & Montenegro)
2004 4 Ali Öztürk (Turkey), Łukasz Piszczek (Poland)
2003 3 Sébastien Grax (France), Paulo Sérgio (Portugal)
2002 3 Dean Ashton (England), Jonathan Daly (Republic of Ireland), Filip Šebo (Slovakia), Fernando Torres (Spain)

Previous season top scorers
2010/11 10 Álvaro Morata (Spain)
2009/10 8 Mattia Destro (Italy)
2008/09 7 Nathan Delfouneso (England), Yacine Brahimi (France)
2007/08 7 Michalis Pavlis (Greece)
2006/07 8 Kostas Mitroglou (Greece), Krisztián Németh (Hungary), Adam Rooney (Republic of Ireland)
2005/06 10 İlhan Parlak (Turkey)
2004/05 11 Borko Veselinović (Serbia & Montenegro)
2003/04 8 Oleksandr Aliyev (Ukraine), Ali Öztürk (Turkey), Łukasz Piszczek (Poland)
2002/03 9 Sébastien Grax (France)
2001/02 10 Kevin Vandenbergh (Belgium)