The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 16th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup (formerly called the FIFA World Youth Championship), hosted by Canada from 30 June to 22 July 2007. Argentina defeated the Czech Republic in the title game by the score of 2–1, thus managing a back-to-back world title, its fifth in the past seven editions, and sixth overall. Argentine player Sergio Agüero was given the FIFA U-20 Golden Shoe (top scorer, with six goals) and the FIFA U-20 Golden Ball (best player of the tournament), while Japan earned the FIFA Fair Play Award.
The tournament featured 24 teams coming from six continental confederations; Canada qualified automatically as hosts, while the remaining teams qualified based on their rankings at the respective continental U-20 (U-19 in Europe's case) tournaments. UEFA (Europe) qualified six teams; AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean) and CONMEBOL (South America) four teams each; and OFC (Oceania) one team.
The tournament took place in a variety of venues across the country – Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Victoria and Burnaby (Vancouver) – with the showcase stadium being Toronto's new National Soccer Stadium where the final match was held. 19 years later, Canada co-hosted the 2026 FIFA World Cup with United States and Mexico.
On 28 June 2007, two days before the inaugural match, it was reported that 950,000 tickets had been sold, making it the largest single-sport event ever taking place in the country, and on 3 July, the tournament organizers sold the millionth ticket. On 19 July, the semi-final match between Chile and Argentina marked this edition as the most attended in the tournament's history, with an accumulated attendance of 1,156,187 spectators, surpassing Mexico 1983's 1,155,160 spectators. Attendance totalled 1,195,299 after the final match.
Bids Three countries launched bids to host the competition: Canada, Japan and South Korea. On 6 August 2004 the FIFA Emergency Committee unanimously awarded the rights to host the event to Canada over South Korea (Japan did not submit an official bid).
Venues MontrealEdmontonOttawaOlympic StadiumCommonwealth StadiumFrank Clair StadiumCapacity: 66,308Capacity: 60,081Capacity: 26,559TorontoVictoriaBurnabyNational Soccer StadiumRoyal Athletic ParkSwangard StadiumCapacity: 20,195Capacity: 14,500Capacity: 10,000
Qualification Twenty-three teams qualified for the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup. As the host team, Canada received an automatic bid, bringing the total number of teams to twenty-four for the tournament. The final draw for the group stages took place on 3 March 2007 in Liberty Grand Entertainment Complex, Toronto.
ConfederationQualifying TournamentQualifier(s)AFC (Asia)2006 AFC Youth Championship CAF (Africa)2007 African Youth ChampionshipCONCACAF (North, Central America & Caribbean)Host nation2007 U-20 World Cup CONCACAF qualifying tournamentCONMEBOL (South America)2007 South American Youth ChampionshipOFC (Oceania)2007 OFC U-20 ChampionshipUEFA (Europe)2006 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship
1.Teams that made their debut.
Match officials ConfederationRefereeAssistantsAFCSubkhiddin Mohd Salleh (Malaysia)Thanom Borikut (Thailand)Mu Yuxin (China)Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)Abdukhamidullo Rasulov (Uzbekistan)Bahadyr Kochkarov (Kyrgyzstan)CAFMohamed Benouza (Algeria)Amar Talbi (Algeria)Mazari Kerai (Algeria)CONCACAFSteven Depiero (Canada)Héctor Vergara (Canada)Joe Fletcher (Canada)Joel Aguilar (El Salvador)Roberto Giron (Honduras)Daniel Williamson (Panama)Germán Arredondo (Mexico)Héctor Delgadillo (Mexico)Francisco Pérez (Mexico)Enrico Wijngaarde (Suriname)Anthony Garwood (Jamaica)Ricardo Morgan (Jamaica)Terry Vaughn (United States)Chris Strickland (United States)George Gansner (United States)CONMEBOLHernando Buitrago (Colombia)Abraham González (Colombia)Rafael Rivas (Colombia)OFCPeter O'Leary (New Zealand)Brent Best (New Zealand)Kaloata Chilia (Vanuatu)UEFAHoward Webb (England)Mike Mullarkey (England)Darren Cann (England)Wolfgang Stark (Germany)Jan-Hendrik Salver (Germany)Volker Wezel (Germany)Viktor Kassai (Hungary)Gábor Erős (Hungary)Tibor Vámos (Hungary)Alberto Undiano Mallenco (Spain)Fermín Martínez Ibáñez (Spain)Juan Carlos Yuste Jiménez (Spain)Martin Hansson (Sweden)Stefan Wittberg (Sweden)Henrik Andrén (Sweden)
Squads For a list of the squads see 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup squads
Group stage
The 24 participating teams were distributed between six groups of four teams each, according to a draw held on 3 March 2007. The groups are contested on a league system, where each team plays one time against the other teams in the same group, for a total of six matches per group. Each group winner and runner-up teams, as well as the best four third-placed teams, qualify for the first round of the knockout stage (round of 16).
Group A
Group B
Group C
Group D
Group E
Group F
Ranking of third-placed teams
Knockout stage
Round of 16
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Match for third place
Final
Goalscorers With six goals, Sergio Agüero was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 135 goals were scored by 84 different players, with one of them credited as own goals.
6 goals Sergio Agüero
5 goals Adrián López
4 goals
Maximiliano Moralez Jozy Altidore
3 goals
Ángel Di María Erwin Hoffer Alexandre Pato Martin Fenin Luboš Kalouda Giovani dos Santos Dawid Janczyk Freddy Adu Danny Szetela
2 goals
Mauro Zárate Rubin Okotie Leandro Lima Jaime Grondona Mauricio Isla Nicolás Medina Arturo Vidal Ousman Jallow Yasuhito Morishima Abdallah Deeb Pablo Barrera Ezekiel Bala Bruno Gama Shin Young-rok Juan Mata Edinson Cavani Luis Suárez Rodgers Kola
1 goal
Claudio Yacob Sebastian Prödl Amaral Carlos Carmona Hans Martínez Alexis Sánchez Mathías Vidangossy Franchel Ibara Gracia Ikouma Ermejea Ngakosso Pablo Herrera Jonathan McDonald Ondřej Kúdela Jakub Mareš Tomáš Mičola Marek Střeštík Pierre Gomez Abdoulie Mansally Jun Aoyama Tomoaki Makino Atomu Tanaka Tsukasa Umesaki Lo'ay Omran Christian Bermúdez Omar Esparza Javier Hernández Héctor Moreno Osmar Mares Jack Pelter Chukwuma Akabueze Elderson Echiéjilé Brown Ideye Kim Kum-il Jon Kwang-ik Nelson Barahona Grzegorz Krychowiak Vitorino Antunes Feliciano Condesso Ross Campbell Mark Reynolds Lee Sang-ho Shim Young-sung Marquitos Alberto Bueno Diego Capel Javi García Gerard Piqué Mario Suárez Michael Bradley Clifford Mulenga William Njobvu Fwayo Tembo
1 own goal Mathías Cardaccio (against the United States)
Awards Source: Golden BallSilver BallBronze Ball Sergio Agüero Maximiliano Moralez Giovani dos SantosGolden ShoeSilver ShoeBronze Shoe Sergio Agüero Adrián López Maximiliano MoralezFIFA Fair Play Award
Final ranking
Controversies
Nigerian accusations of racism The quarter-final match between Chile and Nigeria occurred on FIFA's "Say No To Racism Day." During extra time, Chile's Jaime Grondona scored in the 96th minute, but Nigerian players protested that the goal was offside. Despite their appeals, referee Howard Webb allowed the goal to stand, and goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa received a yellow card for dissent. Subsequent replays showed a defender was out of position, confirming the goal was valid.
After the match, Nigerian coach Ladan Bosso accused Webb of racism at a press conference, stating, "The officiating, I think FIFA has a long way to go to beat racism because that official showed racism." When asked directly if he believed Webb was racist, Bosso replied, "It's good for FIFA to bring in the fight against racism, but they have to follow it to the letter so that the implementation will be done." The FIFA Disciplinary Committee found Bosso guilty of "offensive behaviour" under Article 57 of the FIFA Disciplinary Code, fining him CHF 11,000 and banning him for four months.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was also sanctioned for allowing players to wear T-shirts with religious statements under their game jerseys, violating tournament regulations that prohibit "political, religious, commercial, or personal messages" on team kits.
Chilean clash with police On 19 July, a clash erupted between Chilean players and police following the semi-final match between Chile and Argentina. The Chilean players were furious with referee Wolfgang Stark, claiming he had "lost control of the match early on" and criticizing his issuance of seven yellow cards, two red cards,FIFA.com and the 53 fouls committed during the game. After the match, Chilean players surrounded Stark and his colleagues, prompting members of the Toronto Police Service to intervene. Fearing an attack from the crowd or players, police escorted Stark off the pitch and into the dressing room tunnel.
A brawl then broke out between several Chilean players, team delegates, and police outside Toronto's National Soccer Stadium.[Reuters: Chile soccer players clash with Toronto police; 20 July 2007] According to Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, the altercation began when Chilean players scuffled with a rival fan.Chilean officials blame police for melee , tsn.ca. Retrieved 20 July 2007. He added, "Members of the Chilean team then decided to direct some of their aggressive behaviour towards my officers... The job of my officers was to respond in a firm but fair manner to end that violence. They are trained to do so, and that is what they did."
The Chilean players offered a different account, claiming that Isaías Peralta had approached Chilean fans behind a security fence when about ten police officers stopped him. They alleged that a heated argument ensued, during which Peralta, who does not speak English, was verbally and physically abused by the officers.Campbell, Morgan; Toronto Star: CSA seeking witnesses to Chile brawl; 24 July 2007 Peralta was tasered by an officer and lost consciousness for 20 minutes. Other players then struggled with the police before retreating to their bus. Eyewitnesses reported that players on the bus threw objects at police through the windows and tried to grab officers from inside the damaged vehicle."Chile officials say Toronto police to blame for soccer team's post-match brawl " Canadian Press. Retrieved 21 July 2007. Three minutes later, Harold Mayne-Nicholls, president of the Chilean National Association of Professional Football (ANFP), asked the players to board a different bus. As they exited, police detained them and took them back to the stadium.La Tercera 21 July 2007 edition
FIFA spokesman John Schumacher stated that the players were detained "to de-escalate the situation." Ten team members were held for over three hours and released without charges.La Tercera 22 July 2007 edition. The following day, FIFA president Sepp Blatter described the incident as "regrettable" and apologized on behalf of FIFA."Chile football players face FIFA probe after brawl ", Reuters. Retrieved 21 July 2007. The ANFP hired a Toronto-based law firm to pursue legal action against the Toronto police.
The incident made front-page headlines in Chile. The Canadian embassy in Santiago received a bomb threat, and protesters gathered outside holding signs that read, "Racist Canada.""Toronto melee a global dust-up ", thestar.com. Retrieved 21 July 2007. Chilean President Michelle Bachelet described the incident as "particularly serious because, in our view, the Chilean delegation suffered unjustified aggression" and lodged a formal protest with the Canadian government.Babage, Maria, T.O. cops under scrutiny, Slam.ca, 20 July 2007 In response, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper remarked, "International soccer matches are hotly contested and often become very emotional. As you know, there are processes in Canada by which the authorities review these kinds of incidents, and I don't intend to comment further."