# 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship

The 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship was the eighth staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship, an international football competition organized by FIFA for men's youth national teams, and the eighth since it was established in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Tournament. The final tournament took place for the first time in Portugal, between 14 and 30 June 1991. Matches were played across five venues in as many cities: Faro, Braga, Guimarães, Porto and Lisbon. Nigeria originally won the bid to host but was stripped of its right after found guilty for committing age fabrication.
North Korea and South Korea competed for the first time as a united team, although FIFA attributes its historical data to South Korea. Portugal entered the competition as the defending champions, after winning the previous tournament. They reached the final, where a record attendance of 127,000 witnessed the hosts defeat Portuguese-speaking rival Brazil 4–2 on penalties to secure their second consecutive title. The Soviet Union made its last FIFA tournament appearance, as the country was dissolved later that year.

## Qualification

In addition to the host team, Portugal, 15 other national teams qualified from six continental tournaments.
| Confederation | Qualifying tournament | Qualifier(s) |
| AFC (Asia) | 1990 AFC Youth Championship | Korea Syria |
| CAF (Africa) | 1991 African Youth Championship | Ivory Coast Egypt |
| CONCACAF (North, Central America & Caribbean) | 1990 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament | Mexico Trinidad and Tobago |
| CONMEBOL (South America) | 1991 South American Youth Championship | Argentina Brazil Uruguay |
| OFC (Oceania) | 1990 OFC U-20 Championship | Australia |
| UEFA (Europe) | Host nation | Portugal |
| UEFA (Europe) | 1990 UEFA European Under-18 Championship | England Republic of Ireland Soviet Union Spain Sweden |
    1.^ Teams that made their debut.

## Squads

For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship squads

## Group stages

The 16 teams were split into four groups of four teams. Four group winners, and four second-place finishers qualify for the knockout round.

### Group A

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Group stage result |
| 1 | Portugal (H) | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | +6 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Korea | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Republic of Ireland | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | −2 | 2 | |
| 4 | Argentina | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 1 | |

### Group B

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Group stage result |
| 1 | Brazil | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 5 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Mexico | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 4 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Sweden | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | −2 | 2 | |
| 4 | Ivory Coast | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 1 | |

### Group C

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Group stage result |
| 1 | Australia | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | +4 | 6 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Soviet Union | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | +4 | 4 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Egypt | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 2 | |
| 4 | Trinidad and Tobago | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 12 | −12 | 0 | |

### Group D

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Group stage result |
| 1 | Spain | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 0 | +7 | 5 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 2 | Syria | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 3 | +1 | 4 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | England | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 2 | |
| 4 | Uruguay | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | −7 | 1 | |

## Knockout stage
### Bracket

| Quarter-finals | Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Semi-finals | | Final | Final |
| June 22 – Lisbon | June 22 – Lisbon | | | |
| Portugal (a.e.t.) | 2 | | | |
| Portugal (a.e.t.) | 2 | June 26 – Lisbon | June 26 – Lisbon | | |
| Mexico | 1 | June 26 – Lisbon | June 26 – Lisbon | |
| Mexico | 1 | Portugal | 1 | |
| June 23 – Braga | June 23 – Braga | | Portugal | 1 | |
| June 23 – Braga | June 23 – Braga | Australia | 0 | |
| Australia (p) | 1 (5) | Australia | 0 | |
| Australia (p) | 1 (5) | | | | June 30 – Lisbon | June 30 – Lisbon |
| Syria | 1 (4) | | | | June 30 – Lisbon | June 30 – Lisbon |
| Syria | 1 (4) | | | | Portugal (p) | 0 (4) |
| June 22 – Porto | June 22 – Porto | | | | | Portugal (p) | 0 (4) |
| June 22 – Porto | June 22 – Porto | | | | Brazil | 0 (2) |
| Brazil | 5 | | | | Brazil | 0 (2) |
| Brazil | 5 | June 26 – Guimarães | June 26 – Guimarães | | | |
| Korea | 1 | June 26 – Guimarães | June 26 – Guimarães | | | |
| Korea | 1 | Brazil | 3 | | | |
| June 23 – Faro | June 23 – Faro | | Brazil | 3 | | | |
| June 23 – Faro | June 23 – Faro | Soviet Union | 0 | | Third place | Third place |
| Spain | 1 | Soviet Union | 0 | | Third place | Third place |
| Spain | 1 | | | | June 29 – Porto | June 29 – Porto |
| Soviet Union | 3 | | | | June 29 – Porto | June 29 – Porto |
| Soviet Union | 3 | | | | Australia | 1 (4) |
| | | | | | Soviet Union (p) | 1 (5) |

### Final

* 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship winners
* Portugal Second title

## Awards

| Golden Shoe | Golden Ball | Fair Play Award |
| Serhiy Scherbakov | Emílio Peixe | Soviet Union |

## Goalscorers

Serhiy Scherbakov of Soviet Union won the Golden Boot award for scoring five goals. In total, 82 goals were scored by 54 different players, with none of them credited as own goal.

### 5 goals

* Serhiy Scherbakov

### 4 goals

* Giovane Élber
* Pedro Pineda
* Ismael Urzaiz

### 3 goals

* David Seal
* Paulo Torres
* Pier Luigi Cherubino

### 2 goals

* Djair
* Luiz Fernando
* Marquinhos
* Paulo Nunes
* Andy Awford
* Choi Chol
* Nélson Gama
* Andreas Bild
* Munaf Ramadan

### 1 goal

* Brad Maloney
* Paul Okon
* Kris Trajanovski
* Marcelo Delgado
* Roberto Molina
* Castro
* Andrei Frascarelli
* Amir Abdel Aziz
* Sami El-Sheshini
* Samir Hussein
* Sami Abdel Halil Ismail
* Mostafa Sadek
* Tamer Sakr
* Bradley Allen
* Stephen Gallagher
* Paul McCarthy
* Barry O'Connor
* Ambroise Mambo
* Ambroise Seri
* Sylvain Tiehi
* Cho In-Chol
* Álvarez Arcos
* Héctor Hernández
* Bruno Mendoza
* Capucho
* Rui Costa
* Gil Gomes
* João Vieira Pinto
* Serhiy Konovalov
* Sergei Mandreko
* Dmytro Mykhaylenko
* Yevhen Pokhlebayev
* José Mauricio Casas
* Patrik Andersson
* Jonny Rödlund
* Ammar Awad
* Abdul Latif Helou
* Abdullah Mando

## Final ranking

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
| 1 | Portugal (H) | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 1 | +8 | 11 | Champions |
| 2 | Brazil | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 4 | +10 | 10 | Runners-up |
| 3 | Soviet Union | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 7 | Third place |
| 4 | Australia | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 8 | Fourth place |
| 5 | Spain | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | +5 | 5 | Eliminated in Quarter-finals |
| 6 | Syria | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 4 | +1 | 5 | Eliminated in Quarter-finals |
| 7 | Mexico | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 5 | +2 | 4 | Eliminated in Quarter-finals |
| 8 | Korea | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 3 | Eliminated in Quarter-finals |
| 9 | Egypt | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 2 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 10 | England | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 2 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 11 | Sweden | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | −2 | 2 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 12 | Republic of Ireland | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | −2 | 2 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 13 | Ivory Coast | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 1 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 14 | Argentina | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 1 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 15 | Uruguay | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 7 | −7 | 1 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 16 | Trinidad and Tobago | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 12 | −12 | 0 | Eliminated in Group stage |