FIFA U-20 World Cup: Ukraine kicks off the tournament this Saturday with a match against South Korea

This Saturday, September 27, marks the start of the 24th FIFA U-20 World Cup, in which the Ukrainian youth national team will also participate. Our youth team will begin their performance on Saturday with a match against South Korea. UNN tells about the tournament, who else Ukraine will play against, and where to watch the matches.

U-20 World Cup

The 2025 FIFA U-20 World Cup is the 24th edition of the youth tournament, which will take place in Chile from September 27 to October 19, 2025.

Players born on or after January 1, 2005, and before December 31, 2009, are eligible to participate in the competition.

The 2025 World Cup will be held in five cities in Chile: Valparaíso, Santiago, Viña del Mar, Rancagua, and Talca. 24 teams from six confederations will participate in the forum.

Initially, they will compete in six quartets. The two best teams from each group, as well as four teams out of six that finish third, will advance to the round of 16. Then, it's according to the usual scheme.

Participants of the forum: Chile (as host); Spain, France, Italy, Ukraine, and Norway - from Europe; USA, Mexico, Cuba, and Panama - from CONCACAF; Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Paraguay - from South America; Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Australia - from Asia; New Zealand and New Caledonia - from Oceania; South Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, Egypt - from Africa.

The seeding before the draw was formed based on the total points scored by the country in the last five U-20 World Cups - 2023 (100%), 2019 (80%), 2017 (60%), 2015 (40%), 2013 (20%). The geographical principle was also taken into account during the draw. Ukraine was in the second pot.

Composition of groups for the 2025 U-20 World Cup

The Ukrainian national team was drawn into Group B, where they will face South Korea, Paraguay, and Panama. The other groups are as follows:

• Group A: Chile, New Zealand, Japan, Egypt.
• Group C: Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Spain.
• Group D: Italy, Australia, Cuba, Argentina.
• Group E: USA, New Caledonia, France, South Africa.
• Group F: Colombia, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Nigeria.

Ukrainian National Team

The Ukrainian national team departed for Chile last Wednesday, September 16, with the following squad:

Goalkeepers: 1. Stanislav Vanivskyi ("Stal" Rzeszów, Poland), 12. Vladyslav Krapivtsov ("Girona", Spain), 16. Markiyan Bakus ("LNZ" Cherkasy).

Defenders: 3. Kyrylo Dihtyar, 13. Daniel Vernattus (both - "Metalist" Kharkiv), 4. Mykola Kyrychok ("Karpaty" Lviv), 5. Vladyslav Kysil ("Ponferradina", Spain), 6. Maksym Melnychenko ("Polissya" Zhytomyr), 17. Maksym Derkach ("Tukums 2000", Latvia), 20. Oleksiy Husyev ("Kudrivka").

Midfielders: 10. Hennadiy Synchuk ("Montreal", Canada), 11. Danylo Krevsun ("Borussia" D, Germany), 7. Artur Shakh ("Karpaty" Lviv), 18. Bohdan Budko (AZ, Netherlands), 8. Daniil Vashchenko ("Oleksandriya"), 21. Matviy Panchenko ("Metalist 1925" Kharkiv), 14. Kristian Shevchenko ("Watford", England), 2. Vitaliy Katrych ("Inhulets" Petrove), 15. Yaroslav Karaman ("Polissya" Zhytomyr).

Forwards: 9. Matviy Ponomarenko ("Dynamo" Kyiv), 19. Oleksandr Pishchur ("ETO", Hungary).

On September 22, the youth team moved from Santiago to the suburbs of Valparaíso, where they will play two group stage matches of the World Cup – against South Korea and Panama.

On Saturday, September 27, Ukraine will face South Korea at 23:00, and on Tuesday, September 30, at 23:00, they will play against Panama. Ukraine will play their final group match on Friday, October 3, against Paraguay in Santiago.

Interesting facts

The World Cup will be held in only 4 cities: Santiago, Rancagua, Valparaíso, and Talca.

This is the second tournament that Chile will host - the country last hosted the best future stars of the men's national team in 1987, when Yugoslavia became champion.

The reigning champions are Uruguay, who defeated Italy 1-0 in the 2023 final in Argentina to claim their first title in the competition. However, the Uruguayans failed to qualify for this tournament, finishing only fifth in the current qualifiers.

Uruguay U-20 national team - current trophy holder

The most successful team in the competition is Argentina, with six titles, although they have not lifted the trophy since 2007.

The tournament mascot is "Vito" - a whistling animal resembling a rabbit or chinchilla, characteristic of the region.

"With his friendly nature, attractive appearance and boundless energy (hence his name, derived from the Latin word meaning 'life'), Vito will undoubtedly become a favorite of fans from all over the world. The cute viscacha – an animal that lives in South America and resembles a rabbit or chinchilla – will play an important role in promoting and representing the tournament at home and abroad," FIFA said.

The tournament will feature both titled teams and debutants - for example, New Caledonia will appear at the U-20 World Cup for the first time in history.

The Ukrainian U-20 national team participated in 4 final tournaments of the U-20 World Cup:

• 2001 in Argentina;
• 2005 in the Netherlands;
• 2015 in New Zealand;
• 2019 in Poland.

The highest achievement for our national team was a victory in the 2019 final, where Ukrainian footballers defeated the South Korean national team - 3:1.

Where to watch

You can watch the World Cup matches online for free on the official FIFA website.