1979 FIFA World Youth Championship

1979 FIFA World Youth Championship

1979 FIFAワールドユース選手権
Tournament details
Host country	Japan
Dates	25 August – 7 September
Teams	16 (from 5 confederations)
Venue(s)	4 (in 4 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Argentina (1st title)
Runners-up	Soviet Union
Third place	Uruguay
Fourth place	Poland
Tournament statistics
Matches played	32
Goals scored	83 (2.59 per match)
Attendance	454,500 (14,203 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Ramón Díaz (8 goals)
Best player(s)	Diego Maradona
Fair play award	Poland
← 1977 1981 →

The 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship, the second staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship, 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 and Yokohama — 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 won the trophy after beating holders Soviet Union 3–1, in a final held at Tokyo's National Stadium. Argentina fielded an attack-minded high-scoring team, averaging 3.33 goals per game. They were led by the powerful duo of Diego Maradona and Ramón Díaz, 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%).

Confederation	Qualifying Tournament	Qualifier(s)
AFC (Asia)	Host nation	Japan1
	1978 AFC Youth Championship	Indonesia1  South Korea1
CAF (Africa)	1979 African Youth Championship	Algeria1  Guinea1
CONCACAF (North, Central America & Caribbean)	1978 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament	Canada1  Mexico
CONMEBOL (South America)	1979 South American Youth Championship	Argentina1  Paraguay  Uruguay
UEFA (Europe)	1978 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship	Hungary  Poland1  Portugal1  Soviet Union  Spain  Yugoslavia1

For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship squads.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Group stage result
1	Spain	3	2	0	1	3	2	+1	4	Advance to knockout stage
2	Algeria	3	1	2	0	2	1	+1	4
3	Mexico	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2
4	Japan (H)	3	0	2	1	1	2	−1	2

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Group stage result
1	Argentina	3	3	0	0	10	1	+9	6	Advance to knockout stage
2	Poland	3	2	0	1	9	4	+5	4
3	Yugoslavia	3	1	0	2	5	3	+2	2
4	Indonesia	3	0	0	3	0	16	−16	0

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Group stage result
1	Paraguay	3	2	0	1	6	1	+5	4	Advance to knockout stage
2	Portugal	3	1	1	1	2	3	−1	3
3	South Korea	3	1	1	1	1	3	−2	3
4	Canada	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	2

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Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Group stage result
1	Uruguay	3	3	0	0	8	0	+8	6	Advance to knockout stage
2	Soviet Union	3	2	0	1	8	2	+6	4
3	Hungary	3	1	0	2	3	7	−4	2
4	Guinea	3	0	0	3	0	10	−10	0

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	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	2 September – National Stadium
	Argentina	5
					4 September – National Stadium
	Algeria	0
					Argentina	2
	2 September – Yokohama
					Uruguay	0
	Uruguay (a.e.t.)	1
									7 September – National Stadium
	Portugal	0
									Argentina	3
	2 September – Omiya
									Soviet Union	1
	Spain	0 (3)
					4 September – Kobe
	Poland (p)	0 (4)
					Poland	0
	2 September – Kobe
					Soviet Union	1			Third place
	Paraguay	2 (5)
									6 September – National Stadium
	Soviet Union (p)	2 (6)
									Uruguay (p)	1 (5)
									Poland	1 (3)

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FIFA World Youth Championship 1979 winners
Argentina First title

Golden Shoe	Golden Ball	Fair Play Award
Ramón Díaz	Diego Maradona	Poland

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

8 goals

• Ramón Díaz

6 goals

• Diego Maradona

5 goals

• Andrzej Pałasz

4 goals

• Julio César Romero
• Igor Ponomaryov
• Rubén Paz

3 goals

• Gabriel Calderón

2 goals

1 goal

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Final result
1	Argentina	6	6	0	0	20	2	+18	12	Champions
2	Soviet Union	6	3	1	2	12	7	+5	7	Runners-up
3	Uruguay	6	4	1	1	10	3	+7	9	Third place
4	Poland	6	2	2	2	10	6	+4	6	Fourth place
5	Paraguay	4	2	1	1	8	3	+5	5	Eliminated in Quarter-finals
6	Spain	4	2	1	1	3	2	+1	5
7	Algeria	4	1	2	1	2	6	−4	4
8	Portugal	4	1	1	2	2	4	−2	3
9	South Korea	3	1	1	1	1	3	−2	3	Eliminated in Group stage
10	Yugoslavia	3	1	0	2	5	3	+2	2
11	Mexico	3	0	2	1	3	4	−1	2
12	Japan (H)	3	0	2	1	1	2	−1	2
13	Canada	3	1	0	2	3	5	−2	2
14	Hungary	3	1	0	2	3	7	−4	2
15	Guinea	3	0	0	3	0	10	−10	0
16	Indonesia	3	0	0	3	0	16	−16	0

• FIFA World Youth Championship Japan 1979 Archived 2020-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, FIFA.com
• RSSSF > FIFA World Youth Championship > 1979
• FIFA Technical Report
• All Matches of the Brazilian Soccer Team
• Todos os Jogos da Seleção Brasileira de Futebol