It’s official: the Sub 20 World Championship will be played in Argentina

It was an open secret. But there was no official confirmation. The Sub 20 World Cup will be played in Argentina from 20 May to 11 June. And that happened this Monday in two phases. First the national government, with the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, acting as spokesperson, announced at noon the presentation of guarantees to Fifa to host the match that the national team has won six times. And later, in the property of Lionel Messi de Ezeiza, the president of the AFA, Claudio Chiqui Tapiamade the formal announcement together with FIFA Competitions director Jaime Yarza. Yes, the best juniors in the world will be arriving in the country in just over a month.

“FIFA is pleased to announce that this year’s edition of the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup will take place in Argentina, thus the country of the reigning world champions will open its doors to football’s great stars. I would like to thank the AFA and in particular its president, Claudio Tapia, as well as the government authorities, for their commitment to host this great event on such short notice,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino, in an official statement.

He added: “The FIFA U-20 World Cup plays a key role in FIFA’s efforts to promote youth football around the world. Since 1977, this competition has featured some of the best players of the past decades, including Diego Armando Maradona, Lionel Messi, Paul Pogba, Erling Haaland and many more. Organizing this year’s edition in a country that lives and breathes football will be a great source of inspiration for tomorrow’s stars.”

As a result, Argentina will take charge of the World Cup which was to be played in Indonesia. The original venue was deprived of organizing the contest just days before the draw due to political turmoil in the country due to Israel’s participation.

Argentina, who had not qualified for the competition, saw an opportunity and took advantage of FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s recent visit to Paraguay for the CONMEBOL Congress to offer themselves as an alternative. In this way, the team that leads Javier Mascherano -he had resigned after the failure in the South American, but then he was convinced to continue- he managed to enter among the 24 participants.

Among the summoned, surely, there will be Alexander Garnacho (Manchester United) Massimo Perrone (Manchester City) e Nicholas Paz (Real Madrid), the exponents of the promising generation of “europibes” – children of Argentines or Argentines who have left the country – who have been recruited by the AFA in European football.

The Sub 20 World Cup will be played by 24 countries divided into 6 groups. Qualifiers are Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, South Korea, Ecuador, Slovakia, United States, Fiji, France, Gambia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nigeria, England, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, Senegal, Tunisia, Uzbekistan and Uruguay. The draw will take place on Friday 21 April in Zurich, Switzerland at the FIFA headquarters.

The venues proposed by the AFA are the Villa Mercedes stadium in the province of San Luis; the San Juan Bicentennial; the Centenary of the Chaco; the Mother of Cities of Santiago del Estero; Father Martiarena from Salta and Diego Maradona from La Plata.

The Monumental del River Plate and the Bombonera del Boca Juniors, the two most emblematic stadiums in Argentine football, have not been included because they are in full competition for the Copa Libertadores and the local championship.

Argentina is the top world champion in the category with six titles won in 1979, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2007. Diego Maradona, Juan Román Riquelme, Pablo Aimar, Lionel Scaloni, Javier Saviola, Andrés D’Alessandro, Maximiliano Rodríguez, Lionel Messi, Ángel Di María and Sergio Agüero are some of the great crowned figures in the past.