The 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship was the eighth staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship, an international football competition organized by FIFA for men's youth national teams, and the eighth since it was established in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Tournament. The final tournament took place for the first time in Portugal, between 14 and 30 June 1991. Matches were played across five venues in as many cities: Faro, Braga, Guimarães, Porto and Lisbon. Nigeria originally won the bid to host but was stripped of its right after found guilty for committing age fabrication. North Korea and South Korea competed for the first time as a united team, although FIFA attributes its historical data to South Korea. Portugal entered the competition as the defending champions, after winning the previous tournament. They reached the final, where a record attendance of 127,000 witnessed the hosts defeat Portuguese-speaking rival Brazil 4–2 on penalties to secure their second consecutive title. The Soviet Union made its last FIFA tournament appearance, as the country was dissolved later that year.

Qualification

In addition to the host team, Portugal, 15 other national teams qualified from six continental tournaments.

Match officials

Squads

For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship squads

Group stages

The 16 teams were split into four groups of four teams. Four group winners, and four second-place finishers qualify for the knockout round.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Knockout stage

Bracket

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Third place play-off

Final

Awards

Goalscorers

Serhiy Scherbakov of Soviet Union won the Golden Boot award for scoring five goals. In total, 82 goals were scored by 54 different players, with none of them credited as own goal.

Final ranking