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 ConfederationQualifying tournamentQualifier(s)AFC (Asia)Host nation1978 AFC Youth Championship CAF (Africa)1979 African Youth Championship CONCACAF (North, Central America & Caribbean)1978 CONCACAF U-20 Tournament CONMEBOL (South America)1979 South American Youth Championship UEFA (Europe)1978 UEFA European Under-18 Championship
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 TokyoOmiyaNational Stadium Omiya Stadium Capacity: 48,000 Capacity: 15,500Kobe YokohamaChuo Stadium Yokohama Mitsuzawa Football Stadium Capacity: 13,000 Capacity: 15,000
Group stage Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Third place play-off
Final
Result
Awards
Golden Shoe Golden Ball Fair Play Award Ramón Díaz Diego Maradona
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 Romerito 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 Díaz Beltrán 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
External links
FIFA World Youth Championship Japan 1979 , 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