The 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship, the second staging of the

FIFA World Youth Championship 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 wh ...

, was held in Japan from 26 August to 7 September 1979. It was the first FIFA tournament played in Asia. The tournament took place in four cities — Kobe, Omiya,

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

and

Yokohama is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of T ...

— where a total of 32 matches were played, four more than in the previous edition due to the addition of a quarterfinal round in the knockout stage.

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

won the trophy after beating holders

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

3–1, in a

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

held at Tokyo's

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...

fielded an attack-minded high-scoring team, averaging 3.33 goals per game. They were led by the powerful duo of

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the F ...

and

Ramón Díaz Ramón Ángel Díaz (born 29 August 1959) is a former Argentine footballer and the current manager of Saudi Professional League club Al Hilal. He played for River Plate as a striker, and coached it for three tenures, winning eight titles. ...

, who were the tournament's best player and top scorer respectively. Between the two of them, they scored 14 of Argentina's 20 goals (70%).

Qualification

:1.Teams that made their debut.

Squads

For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see ''

1979 FIFA World Youth Championship squads Below are the rosters for the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship tournament in Japan. Those marked in bold went on to earn full international caps. Group A Head coach: Chus Pereda Head coach: Rachid Hanifi ...

''.

Venues

Group stage

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Knockout stage

Quarter-finals

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Semi-finals

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Third place play-off

Final

Result

Awards

Goalscorers

Ramón Díaz of Argentina won the Golden Shoe award for scoring eight goals. In total, 83 goals were scored by 48 different players, with none of them credited as own goal. Ramon diaz juvenil

;8 goals *

;6 goals *

;5 goals *

Andrzej Pałasz Andrzej Pałasz (born 22 July 1960 in Zabrze) is a retired Polish professional football player. Club career He played mostly for Górnik Zabrze and later also briefly for Hannover 96 in Germany. Pałasz had a spell in the Turkish Süper Lig ...

;4 goals * Julio César Romero * Igor Ponomaryov *

Rubén Paz Ruben Wálter Paz Márquez (born 8 August 1959) is a Uruguayan former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Paz played at two FIFA World Cups for Uruguay and was also South American Footballer of the Year in 1988. He retired in 2 ...

;3 goals *

Gabriel Calderón Gabriel Humberto Calderón (born 7 February 1960) is an Argentinian professional football manager and former player, who is currently the manager of UAE Pro League side, Khor Fakkan Club. Calderón played in several teams including Argentine Ra ...

;2 goals *

Branko Segota Branko (Cyrillic script: Бранко; ) is a South Slavic male given name found in all of the former Yugoslavia. It is related to the names Branimir and Branislav, and the female equivalent is Branka. People named Branko include: * Branko Babić ...

Roberto Cabañas Roberto Cabañas González (11 April 1961 – 9 January 2017) was a Paraguayan footballer who played as a forward. Career During his career, Cabañas played for Cerro Porteño of Paraguay, Stade Brestois and Olympique Lyonnais of France, t ...

* Krzysztof Baran * Oleg Taran * Ernesto Vargas * Felipe Revelez * Haris Smajić *

Nedeljko Milosavljević Nedeljko Milosavljević (Serbian Cyrillic: Недељко Милосављевић; born 12 December 1960) is a Serbian retired footballer. Playing career Club career He was part of the Red Star Belgrade squad that played in the 1979 UEFA Cup Fi ...

;1 goal * Derradji Bendjaballah * Hocine Yahi * Hugo Alves *

Juan Simón Juan Ernesto Simón (born 2 March 1960) is an Argentine former footballer who played as a defender. Career Early years Born in Rosario, Santa Fe Province, Simón started his career with Newell's Old Boys in 1977, at age 9. In 1979, he was part ...

Osvaldo Escudero Osvaldo Salvador Escudero (born October 15, 1960 in Paso de los Libres, Corrientes) is a former Argentine professional footballer. He was part of the Argentina Under-20 team that won the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship in Japan. Escudero ...

* Louis Nagy * György Kerepeczky * József Kardos * Sándor Segesvári * Takashi Mizunuma * Lee Tae-Ho * Armando Romero Manríquez * Enrique Hernández Velázquez * Mario Diaz * Julio Achucarro * Ramon Isasi * Jan Janiec * Kazimierz Buda * Krzysztof Frankowski * Joao Grilo * Rui Ferreira *

Aleksandr Zavarov Oleksandr Anatoliyovych Zavarov, also spelt Aleksandr Anatoljević Zavarov ( uk, Олександр Анатолійович Заваров, russian: Заваров, Александр Анатольевич) – (born 26 April 1961 in Luhansk, ...

* Anatoli Radenko * Mikhail Olefirenko * Sergei Stukashov * Vladimir Mikhalevsky * Yaroslav Dumansky * Joaquín Pichardo * Luis Miguel Gail * Manuel Zúñiga * Daniel Martínez * Hector Molina *

Marko Mlinarić Marko Mlinarić (born 1 September 1960) is a Croatian retired footballer who played as a midfielder. Club career Nicknamed ''Mlinka'', he was part of the Dinamo Zagreb squad that won the 1981–82 Yugoslav First League. He made his debut for ...

Final ranking

External links

FIFA World Youth Championship Japan 1979
, FIFA.com

FIFA Technical Report

All Matches of the Brazilian Soccer Team

Todos os Jogos da Seleção Brasileira de Futebol
{{DEFAULTSORT:1979 Fifa World Youth Championship FIFA World Youth Championship International association football competitions hosted by Japan Fifa World Youth Championship, 1979

August 1979 sports events in Asia September 1979 sports events in Asia