The 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship, the second staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship, was held in Japan from 26 August to 7 September 1979. It was the first FIFA tournament played in Asia. The tournament took place in four cities — Kobe, Omiya, Tokyo and Yokohama — where a total of 32 matches were played, four more than in the previous edition due to the addition of a quarterfinal round in the knockout stage.
Argentina won the trophy after beating holders Soviet Union 3–1, in a final held at Tokyo's National Stadium. Argentina fielded an attack-minded high-scoring team, averaging 3.33 goals per game. They were led by the powerful duo of Diego Maradona and Ramón Díaz, who were the tournament's best player and top scorer respectively. Between the two of them, they scored 14 of Argentina's 20 goals (70%).
For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship squads.
Ramón Díaz of Argentina won the Golden Shoe award for scoring eight goals. In total, 83 goals were scored by 48 different players, with none of them credited as own goal.
Derradji Bendjaballah Hocine Yahi
Hugo Alves Juan Simón Osvaldo Escudero.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Canada_(Pantone).svg.png){kind=small}
Louis Nagy
György Kerepeczky József Kardos Sándor Segesvári.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Japan_(1870%E2%80%931999).svg.png){kind=small}
Takashi Mizunuma.svg/1280px-Flag_of_South_Korea_(1949%E2%80%931984).svg.png){kind=small}
Lee Tae-Ho
Armando Romero Manríquez Enrique Hernández Velázquez Mario Diaz.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Paraguay_(1954%E2%80%931988).svg.png){kind=small}
Julio Achucarro Ramon Isasi.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Poland_(1928%E2%80%931980).svg.png){kind=small}
Jan Janiec Kazimierz Buda Krzysztof Frankowski
Joao Grilo Rui Ferreira
Aleksandr Zavarov Anatoli Radenko Mikhail Olefirenko Sergei Stukashov Vladimir Mikhalevsky Yaroslav Dumansky.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Spain_(1977%E2%80%931981).svg.png){kind=small}
Joaquín Pichardo Luis Miguel Gail Manuel Zúñiga
Daniel Martínez Hector Molina.svg/1280px-Flag_of_Yugoslavia_(1946-1992).svg.png){kind=small}
Marko Mlinarić