Argentina is the most successful nation in the FIFA U-20 World Cup, winning the competition a record six times. The team has participated in 17 of the 23 World Championship events, since the 1979 edition, which they won. Argentina has also won five South American Youth Championships.
The Argentine team that won the 1979 World Youth Championship
Argentina did not participate in the first FIFA World Youth Championship in Tunisia, but appeared at the next edition held in Japan. The team, coached by César Luis Menotti with the help of Ernesto Duchini (who had previously chosen the players and working with them),[1] won the tournament, showing a fine style of play consisting of high possession of the ball, diverse kinds of passes, dribbling, a solid defense and a powerful offensive line that scored a total of 20 goals in the tournament. Diego Maradona and Ramón Díaz were the team's most notable players. The tournament was also the first official championship played by Maradona in a national team. After his frustration of 1978, Maradona made the most of his performances during the tournament, being the best player of the team due to his passing moves, dribblings to rivals, his accuracy to shot free kicks and the six goals he scored.
Before every match, Diego played with the ball, putting it on his neck or his shoulders while the Japanese people couldn't stop applauding him. When I would see this, I would say to myself: "Wow, and the show hasn't even started yet".
Argentina debuted in Group B, thrashing Indonesia 5–0 in their first match, beating Yugoslavia 1–0 in the second and defeating Poland in the third match, 4–1. The youth squad finished first in the group with ten goals scored and only one conceded. En route to the final, Argentina hammered Algeria 5–0, then defeated arch-rival Uruguay 2–0. In the final against the Soviet Union on 7 September, the team won 3–1, becoming the World Youth Champions for the first time. Ramón Díaz won the Golden Shoe as the topscorer, with eight goals, while Maradona was awarded the Golden Ball as best player of the tournament.[2]
Apart from Maradona and Díaz, other notable players of the team were Juan Simón, Hugo Alves, Gabriel Calderón, Juan Barbas and Osvaldo Escudero. That team is still regarded as one of the best Argentine national squads ever.[3]
1981–91: The dark decade
Argentina playing against Brazil in the 1983 World Cup final, where they lost 1–0
Argentina attended the next tournament, hosted by Australia in 1981. They were defeated 2–1 by hosts Australia, then achieved a draw with England (1–1) and beat Cameroon 1–0. Argentina did not qualify to the next stage, however, earning only three points after three matches played.
The team made a much better performance at the 1983 championship in Mexico, reaching the final with Brazil. On the first round, Argentina thrashed China PR 5–0, then defeated Austria 3–0 and beat Czechoslovakia 2–0. The team finished first in the group with zero goals conceded. In the quarter-finals, Argentina defeated Netherlands 2–1 (after Marco van Basten had opened the scored for the Oranje) and Poland 1–0 in the semi-finals. On 19 June 1983, Argentina played the final against Brazil, falling 1–0 at the Estadio Azteca.[4] The team was coached by Carlos Pachamé, designated by the Senior team coach, Carlos Bilardo, to work with youth players.
Argentina did not qualify for the 1985 and 1987 championships (played in the Soviet Union and Chile respectively), but the team participated in the tournament held in Saudi Arabia as one of the three qualified in the South American championship. Argentina was defeated by Spain in the first match. The team recovered winning the second game to Norway 2–0, but although it lost the last match to Iraq, Argentina qualified for the second round. In the knockout stage, the team was beaten 1–0 by Brazil.
For the 1991 championship held in Portugal, Argentina was coached by Reinaldo Merlo, who was designated by then-senior coach Alfio Basile as it had been in the precedent era.
Argentina made its worst campaign in youth tournaments, finishing last in their group with only one point earned from three matches. The team lost to Korea united team 1–0 in the first match, then were defeated by hosts Portugal 3–0 in a match where three Argentine players (Claudio París, Mauricio Pellegrino and Juan Esnáider) were sent off for their rough play which culminated in a brawl on the pitch between both teams. As a result, FIFA punished the Argentina Football Association (AFA) with a two-year suspension, as well as a one-year suspension for Esnáider and a two-year suspension for Norberto Recassens (one of the representatives of the AFA), both of whom insulted the referees in their dressing room at the end of the match.[6]
Because it was banned, Argentina did not participate in the 1993 World Cup in Australia. The Argentina Football Association (AFA) had opted to name a new coach entirely independent from the senior team coach as had been until then. Selected was José Pékerman, who, despite not having much previous experience, convinced the AFA to hire him.
The good results were immediate: Argentina won the first World Cup contested with Pékerman as coach, held in 1995 in Qatar. In the first stage, Argentina defeated the Netherlands 1–0, then lost to Portugal 1–0 followed by a 4–2 win over Honduras, securing a second-place finish and progression to the quarter-finals, where they thrashed Cameroon by 4–0. In semi-finals, Argentina beat Spain 3–0 then defeated Brazil 2–0 in the final, exacting revenge from the 1983 tournament where the Brazilians won.
Argentina won its third title at the 1997 championship, hosted by Malaysia. The team defeated Hungary 3–0 and Canada 2–1, but lost to Australia 4–3. Argentina passed to the round of 16 where they defeated England 2–1. In quarter-finals, Argentina eliminated Brazil after winning 2–0, then beat the Republic of Ireland 1–0 in the semi-finals. In the final match, played on 5 July 1997, the squad defeated Uruguay 2–1 to win its third championship. The team also received the FIFA Fair Play Award in recognition to the good behaviour showed on the field.
The performance during the 1999 World Championship in Nigeria was not so good. Argentina finished 3rd of 4 in the group, winning over Kazakhstan 1–0 at the debut but with a game lost to Ghana (1-0) and a 0–0 draw with Croatia. On the round of 16, Argentina was largely defeated at the hands Mexico by 4-1 and eliminated from the tournament.
In 2001 Argentina hosted its first Youth Championship. The team won its fourth title, the third championship in seven years. Argentina debuted in the José Amalfitani Stadium (the venue where the team played all its games in Buenos Aires) defeating Finland 1–0. The next game Argentina thrashed Egypt 7–1 (with three goals by Javier Saviola), and closed its participation in Group A by smashing Jamaica by 5–1. In the knockout round, Argentina successively eliminated China (2–1), France (3–1) and Paraguay (5–0), winning the tournament with a convincing 3–0 over Ghana at the final, played on 8 July at Vélez Sársfield. Argentina won its fourth youth title unbeaten, scoring 27 goals in 7 matches, conceding 4. River Plate's forward Javier Saviola was awarded with the Golden Shoe (as the topscorer with 11) and Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament. Likewise, Argentina was awarded the FIFA Fair Play Award for the second-straight time. Apart from the multi-awarded Saviola, the national squad had a powerful team with most of its players being experienced playing at the domestic first division, notably Nicolás Burdisso, Leonardo Ponzio, Julio Arca, Leandro Romagnoli, Mauro Rosales, Andrés D'Alessandro and Maxi Rodríguez.[10][11]
The 2001 championship was the last title won with Pékerman as coach, closing a brilliant era that brought back the prestige to Argentine football.
2003–07: The success continues
After the departure of Pékerman, former goalkeeper Hugo Tocalli was designed to replace him. With Tocalli as coach, Argentina made its debut at 2003 championship defeating Spain 2–1. The team also beat Uzbekistan (by the same score) and Mali (3–1). Argentina finished first and unbeaten the first stage. In the round of 16, the national squad beat Egypt 2–1, then defeated United States 2-1 but Argentina lost to Brazil 1–0 at the semifinals. The team was also defeated by Colombia in the 3rd place match so Argentina finished in the 4th position of the general table. Striker Fernando Cavenaghi was the top scorer of the tournament with 4 goals.
In 2004, Pékerman was appointed to coach the Argentina senior team ahead of 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying.[12] One year later, Tocalli left the youth team to join Pékerman's coaching staff on the senior squad, so Francisco Ferraro was designated coach,[13] won its fifth title at the World championship hosted by the Netherlands. Argentina lost to the United States in the first match, won against Egypt (2–1) and Germany (1–0) to qualify for the next stage. From the round of 16 to the semi-finals, Argentina successively eliminated Colombia (2–1), Spain (3–1) and Brazil (2–1) reaching the finals for the sixth time. On 2 July 2005, Argentina defeated Nigeria 2–1 in the final to win its fifth youth championship. Both goals were scored by Lionel Messi from the penalty spot.[14] Messi was the leader of the team and his magical performances resulted in him winning both the top scorer and best player's awards.[15]
Two years later, the team won its second straight title at the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, hosted by Canada. After a 0–0 draw in the debut with the Czech Republic, Argentina smashed Panama 6–0 and defeated North Korea[16] 1–0 to secure qualification to the second round. In the knockout stage, Argentina eliminated Poland (3–1), followed by Mexico (1–0) and Chile (3–0) en route to the final. In the final, played on 22 July, Argentina won its sixth title after defeating the Czechs 3–1. Sergio Agüero, the top scorer of the championship with six goals, was also awarded the Golden Ball as best player. Other notable players on the squad were goalkeeper Sergio Romero, midfielders Éver Banega and Maxi Moralez and forwards Ángel Di María, Mauro Zárate and Pablo Piatti.
Since 2009: Struggle
Argentina's successful performances could not be repeated at the following seven U-20 World Cups. The team failed to qualify twice (2009, 2013) and was eliminated from the group stage on two occasions (2015, 2017).
Javier Pedro Saviola Fernández is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a forward.
Pablo César Aimar is an Argentine former professional footballer and current assistant coach of the Argentina national team. During his career, he played as an attacking midfielder.
Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Argentine football.
The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when it was hosted by Tunisia under the tournament name of FIFA World Youth Championship until 2005. In 2007 the name was changed to its present form. FIFA bills the men's Under-20 World Cup as "the tournament of tomorrow's superstars." Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi and Paul Pogba are previous winners of the official player of the tournament award, and Erling Haaland was the top scorer at the 2019 edition. The current title holder is Uruguay, which won its first title at the 2023 tournament in Argentina.
Andrés Nicolás D'Alessandro is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He has played top-flight football in Argentina, Germany, England, Spain, Brazil and Uruguay.
Juan Román Riquelme is an Argentine former professional footballer and current president of Boca Juniors, the club where he spent the majority of his playing career. He is considered by various journalists, players and coaches as one of the greatest playmakers of all time.
César Luis Menotti, known as El Flaco ("Slim"), was an Argentine football player and manager who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as the head coach of the Argentina national team.
Alfio "Coco" Basile is an Argentine football manager and former player. He played for Racing Club de Avellaneda and Huracán before becoming a manager. He coached many teams during his career, being most notable Racing Club de Avellaneda, the Argentina national team and Boca Juniors, where he won five titles in two years.
José Néstor Pékerman Krimen is an Argentine-Colombian professional football coach. His last team managed was the Venezuela national team. As a youth level coach for Argentina, he won the FIFA World Youth Championship three times, and the U20 South American Youth Championship twice. He coached the Argentina national football team in the 2006 FIFA World Cup and became coach of the Colombia national team in 2012. He subsequently managed the Colombia national team during the 2014 and 2018 FIFA World Cups where he led the team to their best result, the quarterfinals, in 2014, their first World Cup qualification after 16 years of absence.
Ubaldo Matildo Fillol, nicknamed el Pato, is an Argentine football coach and former goalkeeper. He took part in the 1974, 1978 and 1982 World Cups representing the Argentina national team. He also played in the South American qualifiers for the 1986 World Cup, but he was finally not chosen for the final team that played in Mexico. He is usually considered to be one of the greatest goalkeepers and is commonly cited among the best Argentine goalkeepers ever.
The Argentina–Brazil football rivalry is an association football sports rivalry between the Brazilian and Argentinian national teams. The rivalry is considered one of the biggest and fiercest in international football and FIFA has described it as the "essence of football rivalry". As both local and regional federation rivals in South America, clashes have been described as both the Battle of the Americas or the Superclassic of the Americas. Initially a cordial friendly competition between the two nations, the ferocity of the rivalry grew in the early part of the 20th century, marked by repeated controversial high profile incidents and periods of refusing to play each other.
Lionel Sebastián Scaloni is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who is the current manager of the Argentina national team. Under his leadership, Argentina achieved the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Scaloni is regarded as one of the best men’s national coaches in the world. A versatile player, he operated as a right-back or right midfielder.
Sergio Daniel "Checho" Batista is an Argentine football manager and former international player for Argentina.
New Maradona or New Diego was a title given by the press and public to promising Argentine football players in reference to Diego Maradona as a benchmark. Since Maradona retired, fans had been anticipating someone to lead the Argentina national team to a World Cup final, like Maradona did in 1986 and 1990. As a consequence, very talented youngsters were quickly labeled as the New Maradona, sometimes without any similarity in playing style. The New Maradonas were predominantly players in attacking or advanced playmaking roles — forwards, wingers, or attacking midfielders. The term gradually fell out of use after Lionel Messi successfully managed to lead Argentina to World Cup finals in 2014 and 2022, winning it in the latter, arguably emulating and surpassing Maradona to become the most successful Argentine footballer ever.
This is a record of Argentina's results at the FIFA World Cup. Argentina is one of the most successful teams in the tournament's history, having won three World Cups: in 1978, 1986, and 2022. Argentina has also been runner-up three times: in 1930, 1990 and 2014. In 18 World Cup tournaments, Argentina has 47 victories in 88 matches. The team was present in all but four of the World Cups, being behind only Brazil and Germany in number of appearances.
Nicolás Hernán Gonzalo Otamendi is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for and captains Primeira Liga club Benfica.
This is a list of statistical records for the Argentina national football team.
The history of the Argentina national football team begins with their first official match, played on 20 July 1902 against Uruguay, a 6–0 win in Paso del Molino, Montevideo. One year before, There had been a precedent when representatives from both sides met in a match also in Montevideo, although it was not organised by any association and therefore is not considered official.
The history of the Colombia national football team dates back to 1924, with the founding of the Colombian Football Federation. The Colombia national football team has had five entries in the tournament World Cup from 1962 onwards. Colombia hosted the 2001 Copa América, in which they were champions.
The 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship Final was a football match that was played on at the National Stadium, Tokyo, Japan on 7 September 1979 to determine the champions of the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship. The final was contested by Argentina and the Soviet Union. Argentina won the match 3–1, winning the title for the first time.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Argentina 5–0 Venezuela 
Uruguay 5–1 Argentina 
Brazil 4–0 Argentina 
