The FIFA U-20 World Cup began modestly in Tunisia in 1977, with the FIFA Technical Report bemoaning the paucity of spectators. But it produced one of the most gifted players ever to grace a field field, Diego Amando Maradona of Argentina.
The competition's success has always depended upon the particular flavour of the games: That added dash of youth, spontaneity and adventure.
The inevitable teething problems experienced in Tunisia in 1977 were mostly solved at the second U-20 World Cup in Japan in 1979, one of the first major international football events in that country, which helped to trigger interest and enthusiasm for the sport there. The role of the FIFA U-20 World Cup as an "ambassador" to so-called "developing" football countries continued in 1981 when it went to Australia for the first time. In 1983, however, the event enjoyed its first major success in Mexico, a country steeped in football tradition where the final between Brazil and Argentina drew a capacity crowd of 105,000.
The Soviet Union hosted the finals in 1985 while in 1987 it went to South America for the first time when Chile played host and in 1989 the state-of-the-art King Fahd Stadium on the outskirts of Riyadh was the spectacular setting for several matches. The 1991 final saw even the 1983 attendance eclipsed when 127,000 - the second-largest crowd ever to attend a FIFA match - crammed into Lisbon's Stadium of Light to cheer the home team to a repeat of their 1989 victory.
In 1993 the Australians revived memories of the 1981 finals and surpassed them with a superbly organised championship to which the young Socceroos made their own thrilling contribution. Latin football dominated both the 1995 event in Qatar (which had taken over the role of host at barely three weeks' notice after Nigeria had been considered unable to stage the competition) and the 1997 tournament in Malaysia. Africa was still unable to produce the winner in Nigeria 1999, although three CAF teams did make it to the last eight.
When an African representative (Ghana) finally made it to the final in 2001, it was the host, Argentina, who won the day - their fourth FIFA U-20 World Cup title and a showcase for their budding star Saviola, the tournament's top scorer so far with 11 goals in 7 matches. The United Arab Emirates provided the venue for the 2003 edition of the tournament and even threw the tournament's best player, Ismail Matar, into the bargain.
A distinctive South American flavour permeated the Arabian air as they secured three of the four semi-final slots. Colombia and Argentina took third and fourth place respectively, while Brazil claimed their fourth FIFA U-20 World Cup against Spain, thus adding to their triumphs at the 2002 FIFA World Cup and the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Cup and becoming world champions in all age categories.
The semi-finals in 2005 featured two African and two South American teams: Morocco eventually lost to Brazil in the play-off for third place, while Nigeria succumbed in the final against Argentina. The Argentines thus claimed their fifth FIFA U-20 World Cup title, and in Lionel Messi, they also boasted the tournament's best player and top goalscorer with six strikes.
With six gold medals to their name, Argentina now lead the all-time ranking ahead of Brazil in second place on four. The Argentines triumphed in 1979 (with Diego Maradona and Ramon Diaz in their squad), 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2005 and 2007. Brazil have also claimed two silver medals to add to their four golds.
Portugal are the only other team to have won the event more than once (in 1989 and 1991). South American countries won all three events staged between 1993 and 1997 (Argentina twice, Brazil once) but Spain triumphed in 1999 - their first ever win at a FIFA tournament - with Japan springing the surprises by coming second. Mali, taking part for the first time since 1989, performed superbly to take the bronze. This tournament proved beyond a doubt that there is no longer a clear distinction between "strong" and "weak" teams in international youth football and that certain victories are a thing of the past. Standards among the different confederations have levelled out and the fact that four different confederations were represented in the semi-finals in 1989 is further evidence of this.
Other teams that have won the tournament are the Soviet Union (in 1977 with a line-up featuring Vladimir Bessonov as the competition's outstanding player), Germany FR (in 1981 against a surprise team from Qatar) and Yugoslavia, whose 1987 vintage included Boban, Prosinecki and Suker.
With the championship returning to Africa once again with Egypt hosting world's array of stars, who will eventually graduate to play at senior level for their various nations in few years to come.
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