It was an open secret.
But the official confirmation was missing.
The Sub 20 World Cup will be played in Argentina between May 20 and June 11.
And that happened this Monday in two steps.
First, the national government, with the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, as spokesman, announced at noon the presentation of the guarantees to FIFA to host the contest that the National Team won six times.
And later, at the Lionel Messi stadium in Ezeiza, the president of the AFA,
Claudio Chiqui Tapia
, made the formal announcement together with the director of FIFA Competitions, Jaime Yarza.
Yes, the best juniors in the world will come to the country in just over a month.
"FIFA is pleased to announce that this year's edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2023 will take place in Argentina, thus the country of the reigning world champions will open its doors to the great stars of soccer. 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 at 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.
Holding this year's edition in a country that lives and breathes football will be a tremendous inspiration for the stars of tomorrow."
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Consequently, Argentina will take charge of the World Cup that was to be played in Indonesia.
The original venue was stripped of organizing the contest a few days before the draw amid political turmoil in the country over Israel's participation.
Argentina, which had not qualified for the competition, saw an opportunity and took advantage of the recent visit of FIFA President Gianni Infantino to Paraguay for the CONMEBOL Congress to offer itself as an alternative.
In this way, the team led by
Javier Mascherano
- he had resigned after the failure in the South American, but was later convinced to continue - managed to get among the 24 participants.
Among those summoned, surely, will be
Alejandro Garnacho
(Manchester United),
Máximo Perrone
(Manchester City) and
Nicolás Paz
(Real Madrid), the exponents of the promising generation of "europibes" -children of Argentines or Argentines who left the country- who was recruited by the AFA in European football.
The Sub 20 World Cup will be played by 24 countries divided into 6 groups.
The qualifiers are: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, South Korea, Ecuador, Slovakia, United States, Fiji, France, The Gambia, Guatemala, Honduras, Nigeria, England, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Dominican Republic, Senegal , Tunisia, Uzbekistan and Uruguay.
The draw will take place this Friday, April 21.
The venues proposed by AFA are the Villa Mercedes stadium in the province of San Luis;
the Bicentennial of San Juan;
the Chaco Centennial;
the Mother of Cities of Santiago del Estero;
Father Martiarena from Salta and Diego Maradona from La Plata.
The Monumental of River Plate and the Bombonera of Boca Juniors, the two most emblematic stadiums of Argentine soccer, were not included because they are in full competition for the Copa Libertadores and local league.
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 figures crowned in the past.
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The AFA and the Government presented the guarantees for Argentina to host the Sub 20 World Cup
Beligoy supported Falcón Pérez after the penalty in Independiente-Racing and ratified him as the "host" referee of the Sub 20 World Cup
