1979: The first world title Argentina did not participate in the
first FIFA World Youth Championship in
Tunisia, but appeared at the
next edition held in
Japan. The team, coached by
César Luis Menotti with the help of
Ernesto Duchini (who had previously chosen the players and worked with them), won the tournament, showing a fine style of play consisting of high possession of the ball, diverse passing, dribbling, a solid defense and a powerful offensive line that scored a total of 20 goals in the tournament.
Diego Maradona and
Ramón Díaz were the team's most notable players. The tournament was also the first official championship played by Maradona for the national team. After his frustration of 1978, Maradona made the most of his performances during the tournament, being the best player of the team due to his passing moves, dribbling, accuracy with free kicks and the six goals he scored. Argentina debuted in Group B, thrashing
Indonesia 5–0 in their first match, beating
Yugoslavia 1–0 in the second and defeating
Poland in the third match, 4–1. The youth squad finished first in the group with ten goals scored and only one conceded. En route to the final, Argentina hammered
Algeria 5–0, then defeated arch-rival
Uruguay 2–0. In
the final against the
Soviet Union on 7 September, the team won 3–1, becoming the World Youth Champions for the first time. Ramón Díaz won the Golden Shoe as the topscorer, with eight goals, while Maradona was awarded the Golden Ball as best player of the tournament. Apart from Maradona and Díaz, other notable players of the team were
Juan Simón, Hugo Alves,
Gabriel Calderón,
Juan Barbas and
Osvaldo Escudero. That team is still regarded as one of the best Argentine national squads ever.
1981–91: The dark decade Argentina attended the next tournament, hosted by
Australia in
1981. They were defeated 2–1 by hosts Australia, then achieved a draw with
England (1–1) and beat
Cameroon 1–0. Argentina did not qualify to the next stage, however, earning only three points after three matches played. The team made a much better performance at the
1983 championship in
Mexico, reaching the final with
Brazil. On the first round, Argentina thrashed
China PR 5–0, then defeated
Austria 3–0 and beat
Czechoslovakia 2–0. The team finished first in the group with zero goals conceded. In the quarter-finals, Argentina defeated Netherlands 2–1 (after
Marco van Basten had opened the scored for the
Oranje) and Poland 1–0 in the semi-finals. On 19 June 1983, Argentina played the final against Brazil, falling 1–0 at the
Estadio Azteca. The team was coached by
Carlos Pachamé, designated by the Senior team coach,
Carlos Bilardo, to work with youth players. Some of the players of that team were goalkeeper
Luis Islas, defenders
Fabián Basualdo,
Jorge Theiler,
Carlos Enrique; midfielders
Mario Vanemerak,
Oscar Acosta and Roberto Zárate; and forwards
Claudio García,
Jorge Luis Gabrich and
Oscar Dertycia. Argentina did not qualify for the 1985 and 1987 championships (played in the Soviet Union and Chile respectively), but the team participated in the
tournament held in Saudi Arabia as one of the three qualified in the South American championship. Argentina was defeated by Spain in the first match. The team recovered winning the second game to
Norway 2–0, but although it lost the last match to
Iraq, Argentina qualified for the second round. In the knockout stage, the team was beaten 1–0 by Brazil. For the
1991 championship held in Portugal, Argentina was coached by
Reinaldo Merlo, who was designated by then-senior coach
Alfio Basile as it had been in the precedent era. Argentina made its worst campaign in youth tournaments, finishing last in their group with only one point earned from three matches. The team lost to Korea united team 1–0 in the first match, then were defeated by hosts Portugal 3–0 in a match where three Argentine players (
Claudio París,
Mauricio Pellegrino and
Juan Esnáider) were sent off for their rough play which culminated in a brawl on the pitch between both teams. As a result,
FIFA punished the
Argentina Football Association (AFA) with a two-year suspension, as well as a one-year suspension for Esnáider and a two-year suspension for Norberto Recassens (one of the representatives of the AFA), both of whom insulted the referees in their dressing room at the end of the match. Some of the players that took part of that team were goalkeeper
Leonardo Díaz, defenders
Diego Cocca,
Mauricio Pochettino and Pellegrino; midfielders París,
Walter Paz Hugo Morales and
Christian Bassedas; and forwards
Marcelo Delgado and Esnáider.
Pékerman era: the golden years Because it was banned, Argentina did not participate in the 1993 World Cup in Australia. The
Argentina Football Association (AFA) had opted to name a new coach entirely independent from the senior team coach as had been until then. Selected was
José Pékerman, who, despite not having much previous experience, convinced the AFA to hire him. The good results were immediate: Argentina won the first World Cup contested with Pékerman as coach, held in
1995 in
Qatar. In the first stage, Argentina defeated the Netherlands 1–0, then lost to Portugal 1–0 followed by a 4–2 win over Honduras, securing a second-place finish and progression to the quarter-finals, where they thrashed Cameroon by 4–0. In semi-finals, Argentina beat Spain 3–0 then defeated Brazil 2–0 in the final, exacting revenge from the 1983 tournament where the Brazilians won. Some of its most notable players were
Juan Pablo Sorín,
Joaquín Irigoytía,
Federico Domínguez,
Mariano Juan,
Ariel Ibagaza,
Leonardo Biagini and
Walter Coyette. Argentina won its third title at the
1997 championship, hosted by
Malaysia. The team defeated Hungary 3–0 and Canada 2–1, but lost to Australia 4–3. Argentina passed to the round of 16 where they defeated England 2–1. In quarter-finals, Argentina eliminated Brazil after winning 2–0, then beat the Republic of Ireland 1–0 in the semi-finals. In the final match, played on 5 July 1997, the squad defeated Uruguay 2–1 to win its third championship. The team also received the FIFA Fair Play Award in recognition to the good behaviour showed on the field. Argentina showed the talent of notable players such as
Leonardo Franco,
Fabián Cubero,
Leandro Cufré,
Walter Samuel,
Diego Placente,
Esteban Cambiasso,
Pablo Aimar,
Juan Román Riquelme and
Bernardo Romeo, many of them with already many matched played in the
Primera División when the tournament began. The performance during the
1999 World Championship in
Nigeria was not so good. Argentina finished 3rd of 4 in the group, winning over Kazakhstan 1–0 at the debut but with a game lost to Ghana (1-0) and a 0–0 draw with Croatia. On the round of 16, Argentina was largely defeated at the hands Mexico by 4-1 and eliminated from the tournament. In
2001 Argentina hosted its first Youth Championship. The team won its fourth title, the third championship in seven years. Argentina debuted in the
José Amalfitani Stadium (the venue where the team played all its games in Buenos Aires) defeating Finland 1–0. The next game Argentina thrashed Egypt 7–1 (with three goals by
Javier Saviola), and closed its participation in Group A by smashing Jamaica by 5–1. In the knockout round, Argentina successively eliminated China (2–1), France (3–1) and Paraguay (5–0), winning the tournament with a convincing 3–0 over Ghana at the final, played on 8 July at Vélez Sársfield. Argentina won its fourth youth title unbeaten, scoring 27 goals in 7 matches, conceding 4. River Plate's forward Javier Saviola was awarded with the Golden Shoe (as the topscorer with 11) and Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament. Likewise, Argentina was awarded the FIFA Fair Play Award for the second-straight time. Apart from the multi-awarded Saviola, the national squad had a powerful team with most of its players being experienced playing at the domestic first division, notably
Nicolás Burdisso,
Leonardo Ponzio,
Julio Arca,
Leandro Romagnoli,
Mauro Rosales,
Andrés D'Alessandro and
Maxi Rodríguez. The 2001 championship was the last title won with Pékerman as coach, closing an era that brought back the prestige to Argentine football.
2003–07: The success continues After the departure of Pékerman, former goalkeeper
Hugo Tocalli was designed to replace him. With Tocalli as coach, Argentina made its debut at
2003 championship defeating Spain 2–1. The team also beat Uzbekistan (by the same score) and Mali (3–1). Argentina finished first and unbeaten the first stage. In the round of 16, the national squad beat Egypt 2–1, then defeated United States 2-1 but Argentina lost to Brazil 1–0 at the semifinals. The team was also defeated by Colombia in the 3rd place match so Argentina finished in the 4th position of the general table. Striker
Fernando Cavenaghi was the top scorer of the tournament with 4 goals. In 2004, Pékerman was appointed to coach the
Argentina senior team ahead of
2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying. One year later, Tocalli left the youth team to join Pékerman's coaching staff on the senior squad, so Francisco Ferraro was designated coach, won its fifth title at the
World championship hosted by the Netherlands. Argentina lost to the United States in the first match, won against Egypt (2–1) and Germany (1–0) to qualify for the next stage. From the round of 16 to the semi-finals, Argentina successively eliminated Colombia (2–1), Spain (3–1) and Brazil (2–1) reaching the finals for the sixth time. On 2 July 2005, Argentina defeated Nigeria 2–1 in the final to win its fifth youth championship. Both goals were scored by
Lionel Messi from the penalty spot. Messi was the leader of the team and his magical performances resulted in him winning both the top scorer and best player's awards. In the 2005 team's squad, Lionel Messi was the star player and had already been a La Liga champion with FC Barcelona in the 2004–05 season. Other notable players for Argentina in that year were goalkeeper
Oscar Ustari; defenders
Ezequiel Garay and
Julio Barroso, midfielders
Pablo Zabaleta,
Fernando Gago and
Lucas Biglia and forwards
Sergio Agüero and
Neri Cardozo. Two years later, the team won its second straight title at the
2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, hosted by Canada. After a 0–0 draw in the debut with the Czech Republic, Argentina smashed Panama 6–0 and defeated North Korea 1–0 to secure qualification to the second round. In the knockout stage, Argentina eliminated Poland (3–1), followed by Mexico (1–0) and Chile (3–0) en route to the final. In the final, played on 22 July, Argentina won its sixth title after defeating the Czechs 3–1.
Sergio Agüero, the top scorer of the championship with six goals, was also awarded the Golden Ball as best player. Other notable players on the squad were goalkeeper
Sergio Romero, midfielders
Éver Banega and
Maxi Moralez and forwards
Ángel Di María,
Mauro Zárate and
Pablo Piatti.
Since 2009: Struggle Argentina's successful performances could not be repeated at the following seven U-20 World Cups. The team failed to qualify twice (2009, 2013) and was eliminated from the group stage on two occasions (2015, 2017). ==Competitive record==