Morocco Crowned U-20 World Cup Champions

Morocco made history by being crowned FIFA U-20 World Cup champions after defeating Argentina 2-0 in the final at the national stadium “Julio Martínez Prádanos” in Santiago, Chile, in front of 43,000 spectators.

Portuguese side Famalicão’s striker Yassir El Zabiri was the star of the final, scoring both goals in the 12th and 29th minutes, raising his tally to five goals and finishing as joint top scorer alongside American Benjamin Cremaschi, Colombian Niser Villarreal, and Frenchman Lucas Michel.

The Moroccan side came close to opening the scoring earlier when El Zabiri broke through one-on-one with goalkeeper Santino Barbi, who fouled him on the edge of the box. Italian referee Maurizio Mariani initially waved play on, but Morocco coach Mohamed Ouahbi used his VAR challenge card — each team is allowed two — and after review, the referee awarded Morocco a free-kick and showed Barbi a yellow card (8).

Amid Argentina’s attempts to level the score, Watford’s Othmane Maa’ma led a counter-attack, outplaying the defense before delivering a precise cross to El Zabiri, who finished with his left foot from close range to double Morocco’s lead (29).

The “Atlas Cubs” sealed the title after the senior national team’s historic World Cup 2022 run, where they became the first African team to reach the semifinals before losing to France, and following the Olympic squad’s bronze medal at the Paris 2024 Games.

This was Morocco’s first-ever World Cup final appearance at any age group, having previously reached the semifinals in 2005 in the Netherlands. The victory also denied Argentina a record seventh title. Along the way, Morocco had already eliminated heavyweights Spain and Brazil (the second-most successful nation with five titles) in the group stage, before beating South Korea in the Round of 16, the United States in the quarterfinals, and France in the semifinals.

Morocco thus became the first Arab nation to win a world title at this level, achieving what Qatar fell short of in 1981 when they reached the final but lost 0-4 to West Germany in Australia.

They are also only the second African side to lift the trophy, after Ghana in 2009, when the Black Satellites beat Brazil on penalties 4-3 (0-0 after extra time). Ghana had previously lost finals in 1993 to Brazil (1-2) in Australia and in 2001 to Argentina (0-3) in Argentina. Nigeria had also fallen short, losing finals in 1989 to Portugal (0-2) in Saudi Arabia and in 2005 to Argentina (1-2) in the Netherlands.

Morocco’s Othmane Maa’ma won the Golden Ball award as the tournament’s best player, while El Zabiri received the Silver Ball as the second-best player.