A list of legendary Argentine players who won the U20 World Cup Golden Globe Award: Who can replicate the glory of superstars?

Since 1977, FIFA has begun to award Golden Globe Awards to the best players of the World Youth Championship (U20 World Cup). Which Argentine football legends have won this honor for their outstanding performance in this event?

1. [Diego Maradona]

In the 1978 World Cup, Cesar Luis Menotti thought Diego Maradona was too young and could not bear huge pressure, so she did not call him into the national team. After that, Maradona completed “revenge” in the 1979 U20 World Cup. This is the first time Argentina has been in the competition since the event was founded in 1977, and Maradona and Menotti join hands to create history.

In the first game, Maradona shone with two amazing goals: the first ball, after receiving the pass from his teammate, he shuttled through the close-up of five defensive players, lightly dribbled past the goalkeeper, and sent the ball into the empty goal, which was a work-of-art goal; the second ball was Maradona's signature scoring method - he dribbled the ball from the left and accurately hit the ball into the near corner of the goal. In the end, the Argentina team led by Menotti beat Indonesia 5-0, achieving a good start to the U20 World Cup.

In the journey to advance to the finals, except for the second round of the match against Yugoslavia, Maradona scored goals in every game. However, Maradona's most memorable moment in the event was undoubtedly in the final showdown with the Soviet Union.

Maradona, who played for the Argentine Youth team at the time, broke the deadlock with a free kick and helped the team take the lead. In the end, Argentina won 3-1 and Maradona won his first world championship trophy in his life in Japan. The "Golden Boy" won the Best Player Award (Golden Ball Award) with 6 goals.

2. [Javier Saviola]

Although the Argentine team won the U20 World Cup two times in 1995 and 1997, no Argentine player won the Best Player (MVP) award in both events. It was not until 2001 that Javier Saviola won the Golden Globe for his historic performance that the honor once again dyed Argentina's blue and white color. The team led by Jose Peckerman is very star-studded. This World Youth Championship is held in Argentina for the first time. Saviola made her debut with River Plate nearly three years ago and was one of the stars in Argentina football at that time.

Saviola became the top scorer of the tournament with 11 goals (this figure remains a record today), and led his teammates to win the championship trophy at the Jose Amalfitani Stadium. What was his most impressive goal? Hat tricks against Egypt and France, and a goal to break the Ghana goal in the final. There is no doubt that he won the Golden Boot Award and the Best Player Award at the same time.

3. [Leonel Messi]

If 1979 was the starting point of Maradona's World Cup journey, then 2005 was the beginning of his main successor, Messi. Messi was also a young player who gradually gained playing time with Barcelona when he went to the U20 World Cup in the Netherlands, but he had shown amazing talent in the South American Youth Championship at the beginning of the year. Despite this, he has not yet become the absolute main player in the national team coached by Francesco Ferraro. Messi made his debut as a substitute in his first match against the United States, when Argentina was 1-0 behind. The future "No. 10" player wearing the No. 18 jersey at that time failed to help the team reverse the score, but his appearance changed the trend of the game. Ferraro soon realized his decision-making mistake, and the Barcelona star was then included in the starting lineup.

Once on the starting lineup, Messi never left the main 11-man lineup. In the second round of the match against Egypt, Messi scored, and since then he started an unstoppable wave of goals and assists: he gave assists against Germany, broke through Colombia, added another assist to the match against Spain, and also scored with a wonderful goal in the game against Croatia.

However, the Rosario star's peak performance in the event appeared in the semi-finals against Brazil. That day, in an almost packed stadium, Messi broke through three defensive players in a row and shot a powerful and heavy long shot outside the penalty area, scoring a 1-0 lead for the team. Then, Brazil equalized the score and the game seemed to be entering overtime. But at this moment, Messi made a magical dribbling breakthrough, giving Pablo Zavaletta an assist, who scored and helped Argentina secure a spot in the finals.

The subsequent stories have been recorded in history. In the final, Messi scored the Nigerian goal with two penalty kicks, winning the Golden Boot and Golden Ball Awards, and the Argentina team also successfully won the championship trophy.

4. [Sergio Aguero]

Aguero was also in the team at the 2005 U20 World Cup, although he had relatively few roles at the time. Because of his age, Aguero also participated in the 2007 Canadian U20 World Cup. By then, the former independent player had become the captain of the team and was an experienced player of this age group.

Aguero showed his historically level personal performance in that FIFA event: he scored 6 goals (including goals against the Czech team in the final) and sent 4 assists to lead the Argentine national team to the top of the championship podium again. Naturally, he won both the Golden Boot Award and the Golden Globe Award.

【Another Argentine U20 World Cup Golden Globe Winner? 】

This historical "broken burden" is very heavy, and it is almost impossible to compare with the superstars in Argentina football. But in the upcoming event, nothing is possible.