# 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship

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%).

## Qualification

| Confederation | Qualifying Tournament | Qualifier(s) |
| AFC (Asia) | Host nation | Japan |
| AFC (Asia) | 1978 AFC Youth Championship | Indonesia South Korea |
| CAF (Africa) | 1979 African Youth Championship | Algeria Guinea |
| CONCACAF (North, Central America & Caribbean) | 1978 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament | Canada Mexico |
| CONMEBOL (South America) | 1979 South American Youth Championship | Argentina Paraguay Uruguay |
| UEFA (Europe) | 1978 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship | Hungary Poland Portugal Soviet Union Spain Yugoslavia |
    1.^ Teams that made their debut.
    2.^ Paraguay qualified by winning an intercontinental qualification group against Australia, the winner of the 1978 OFC U-20 Championship, and Israel.

## Squads

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

## Venues

| Tokyo | TokyoOmiyaKobeYokohama | Omiya |
| National Stadium | TokyoOmiyaKobeYokohama | Omiya Stadium |
| Capacity: 48,000 | TokyoOmiyaKobeYokohama | Capacity: 15,500 |
| Kobe | TokyoOmiyaKobeYokohama | Yokohama |
| Chuo Stadium | TokyoOmiyaKobeYokohama | Yokohama Mitsuzawa Football Stadium |
| Capacity: 13,000 | TokyoOmiyaKobeYokohama | Capacity: 15,000 |

## Group stage
### Group A

| 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 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Mexico | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 2 | |
| 4 | Japan (H) | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 2 | |

### Group B

| 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 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Yugoslavia | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 2 | |
| 4 | Indonesia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 16 | −16 | 0 | |

### Group C

| 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 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | South Korea | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 3 | |
| 4 | Canada | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −2 | 2 | |

### Group D

| 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 | Advance to knockout stage |
| 3 | Hungary | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 2 | |
| 4 | Guinea | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 | −10 | 0 | |

## Knockout stage

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

### Final
## Result

* FIFA World Youth Championship 1979 winners
* Argentina First title

## Awards

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

## Goalscorers

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

* Branko Segota
* Roberto Cabañas
* Krzysztof Baran
* Oleg Taran
* Ernesto Vargas
* Felipe Revelez
* Haris Smajić
* Nedeljko Milosavljević

### 1 goal

* Derradji Bendjaballah
* Hocine Yahi
* Hugo Alves
* Juan Simón
* Osvaldo 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
* Anatoli Radenko
* Mikhail Olefirenko
* Sergei Stukashov
* Vladimir Mikhalevsky
* Yaroslav Dumansky
* Joaquín Pichardo
* Luis Miguel Gail
* Manuel Zúñiga
* Daniel Martínez
* Hector Molina
* Marko Mlinarić

## Final ranking

| 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 | Eliminated in Quarter-finals |
| 7 | Algeria | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 6 | −4 | 4 | Eliminated in Quarter-finals |
| 8 | Portugal | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 3 | Eliminated in Quarter-finals |
| 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 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 11 | Mexico | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | −1 | 2 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 12 | Japan (H) | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | −1 | 2 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 13 | Canada | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −2 | 2 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 14 | Hungary | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 2 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 15 | Guinea | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 | −10 | 0 | Eliminated in Group stage |
| 16 | Indonesia | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 16 | −16 | 0 | Eliminated in Group stage |