The India national under-20 football team represents India at all international under-20 tournaments.[7] They act as the main feeder team for the India U-23 and the senior Indian football team.
This team is for Indian players aged under 19 at the start of the calendar year in which a two-year AFC U-19 Championship campaign begins, and as such, some players can remain with the squad until the age of 21. The team competes for the Asian Championship, with the finals every even-numbered year, formerly odd-numbered years. It is also eligible to participate in the SAFF U-20 Championship and the FIFA U-20 World Cup held every two years.
Beginning from 2024-25 I-league season, the team is also eligible to participate in the I-league, the second division of Indian Football League System.[8] Previously, the team has participated in the I-league, then the first and now second division of Indian football league system, since 2010 under the names of AIFF XI,Palian Arrows and Indian Arrows. The team was disbanded in 2021 and revived as India U-20 in 2024.[9]
History
1959−1970
For the first four seasons of AFC U-19 Championship, from 1959 to 1962 the Indian team did not enter into the tournament though there was no qualification round. India first participated in the AFC U-19 Championships in 1963 but did not move ahead from the group stage.[10]1964 is where the first Kabui player, Basanta Kumar Kabui represented Manipur in an International event.[11][12][13]
The first best result came at the 1966 edition where the team entered in the quarter finals with 3 wins against Burma, Japan and Singapore and a defeat by China but in the quarter final they lost to Israel by 4−0.[14] In the next edition at 1967 AFC Youth Championship India again entered in the quarter final. First a draw of 1−1 against Israel and then defeating Malaysia by 4−1 but same as 1966 they again defeated in the quarter final, this time by Indonesia by 2−6.[15] In 1968, the team didn't move beyond group stage, and next two edition of 1969 and 1970 India did not enter in the championships.[16]
In 1971, they again reached the quarter final for the third time in AFC championships, but the fate was same as again saw a defeat, now against Japan by 0−3. But, after a gap of two more edition, it was 1974 AFC Youth Championship, where India saw the golden moment after becoming the champions of Asia.[17][18] First in group stage India defeat both Laos and Burma by 1−0 and a draw against Hong Kong by 2−2. Then entering in the quarter final they defeated Singapore by 1(4)−1(1), thus reached semi-finals where defeating Thailand by 2−1, for the first time India reached the final of the Championship. But the final was a draw against Iran by 2−2 thus jointly awarded both the team as the Champions.[19][20][21] In 1975 and 1976 edition, India didn't do much well but at 1977 AFC Youth Championship they reached the quarter final but the opponent was Iran, the defending Champion who defeated India by 3−0, thus failed to qualify for the first FIFA World Youth Championship in 1977 which later came to be known as FIFA U-20 World Cup and also failed to qualify at the 1979 edition.[22]
1980−2000, the decline
These two decades saw a decline in the performance of the Indian team. Qualification round started from 1980 AFC Youth Championship and India failed to qualify in 6 out of 11 edition of the championships and in rest 5 edition the failed to move beyond the group stage, thus also failed to qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup as the finalist were only to be qualified for the competition.[23]
2002−2017, rise and fall
In the 2002, at the AFC U-19 Championship, India reached the quarter final for the 6th time, by the virtue of third-place qualifiers, but defeated heavily by South Korea, where the Korean found the Indian net 7 times.[24] Next two editions they ended their competition in group stages and next 7 editions from 2008 to 2018, India failed to qualify again for the championships and so for the FIFA U20 Worldcup.
In the meanwhile, SAFF started SAFF U-20 Championship from 2015 to develop the youth teams of South Asian countries as they continuously failing to qualify for AFC U-20 championships. In the 2015 inaugural edition, India became runners-up facing a defeat from Nepal through a penalty shoot out. In the next edition in 2017, the tournament was a round robin, where India saw two wins against Bhutan and Maldives and two defeats from Bangladesh and Nepal, thus achieved the third place in the tournament.[25]
2018−present
The AIFF finally acted with the international exposure to the youth and under 17 teams. India's U-20 team was invited to participate in Cotif Tournament where clubs and national and autonomous teams participate every year since 1984, held at Valencia, Spain. 2018 Cotif was 35th Anniversary of the tournament.[26] Though India lost two consecutive matches against Spanish club Murcia then against Mauritania, they managed a 0–0 draw[27] against a stronger Latin American side of Venezuela, but on the final group match on 5 August 2018, the Indian side wrote a piece of history when they defeated the most successful U-20 Worldcup winning nation Argentina. The match was historic in many ways, when Indian defender Deepak Tangri headed a corner kick to the net of Argentine side, it was the first goal against them by any Indian side, then with a second goal by Anwar Ali with a fabulous free kick helped India to win the match with a score of 2−1 against the stronger Argentine side, made a history as it is the first time that any Indian team defeated any Argentina side or any South American national team.[28][29][30]Argentina national team manager Scaloni and Argentine great Pablo Aimar praised the young colt's performances and said the future of the team is bright if there is continued perseverance.[31]AIFF called it as one of the "biggest days for Indian Football" as team coach said "This victory will definitely earn Indian football more respect in the world of football. It opens up a window of opportunity to test ourselves against the best in the world on a regular basis".[32]
Just after the Cotif experience, AIFF announced the team was invited to play in a four-nation tournament between under-20 national teams of France, Croatia and Slovenia and two friendlies against Serbia.[33] This was the first time India was playing in a 4-nations tournament in which all the opponents are European nations.[34][35] In the first match the team faced a big defeat against a mightier Croatian team by 0−5.[36] The second match was against Slovenia, where they played very well within 90 minutes but failed to convert various chances and on the last minute of injury time the Slovenian side found the net, match ended in 0−1 defeat.[37] Third match was against France, which India lost by 2−0.[38] In the friendlies against Serbia India saw defeat in both the matches, first by 2−0[39] and second by 3−1 where Rahim Ali managed to find the net once.[40]
At the South Asian level India won their first U-20 SAFF title in 2019. They defeated Bangladesh 2–1 in the final.[41] Team India also won the inaugural OFC Youth Development Tournament in 2019, after beating Tahiti 2–0.[42] India defended their SAFF title in 2022 by defeating Bangladesh again in the final, this time by an even bigger score of 5–2.[43] It was also in the same tournament that the team recorded their biggest ever victory when they dismantled Nepal 8–0.[44][45] India won their third title in a row by defeating arch-rivals Pakistan in the final of the SAFF championship in 2023 by a margin of 3–0.[46][47]
In 2024, India faced Bhutan and Maldives in SAFF U-20 Championship in Nepal. They won their two group games by 1 goal each against Bhutan and Maldives but got drubbed by Bangladesh in semi-finals during penalty-shootouts.[48] India once again failed to qualify for 2025 AFC U-20 Asian Cup in China. The team won 4–1 over Mongolia and 2–0 over Laos but fell to Iran by 0–1 in the qualifiers.[49][50][51]
India participated in 2025 2025 U-20 Challenge Series in Indonesia, with Syria, Jordan and hosts Indonesia.[52][53] The team lost all their matches with scoring only one goal against Syria. After the tournament former Bengaluru FC and India Under-17 coach Bibiano Fernandes was called to lead the team.[54] India had a dominant run in 2025 SAFF Under-19 Championship, beating Sri Lanka and Nepal by the score of 8–0 and 4–0 respectively.[55] India then defeated Maldives by 3–0 in the semi-finals.[56] The team faced Bangladesh in the final and beat them at penalty-shootouts after the game ended 1–1 in regular time.[57]
*Denotes draws includes knockout matches decided on penalty kicks. Red border indicates that the tournament was hosted on home soil. Gold, silver, bronze backgrounds indicates 1st, 2nd and 3rd finishes respectively. Bold text indicates best finish in tournament.
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Burma 1–1 India 
