South Africa are less than a week from opening their U-20 FIFA World Cup campaign, returning to the tournament for the first time since 2019 after missing out on the last edition in 2023.
This edition in Chile marks Amajita’s fifth appearance at the tournament, where the nation’s young stars have struggled to find success.
South Africa made its debut at the tournament in 1997 at the then-named FIFA World Youth Championship in Malaysia, following the nation’s reintroduction to the international sporting stage. The country earned its spot at the tournament through the CAF African Youth Championship earlier that same year.
Amajita were drawn in group B with heavyweights Brazil and France, as well as South Korea. They managed a 0-0 draw with the Asian nation in their opening game before going down to Brazil 2-0 and France 4-2, with future footballing legend Thierry Henry netting France’s third goal in the 83rd minute.
They left the competition having only collected one point from their three group encounters.
South Africa failed to qualify for the next five editions before booking its spot at the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt.
On their home continent, Amajita managed their best performance at the tournament to date, advancing from group F despite finishing third behind Hungary and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the second best third-placed team across the group stage. A 2-2 draw with the UAE, 4-0 loss to Hungary and a 2-0 win over Honduras proved enough to send Amajita through to the knockout stage.
The round of 16 saw Amajita exit the tournament in heartbreaking fashion, losing to Ghana 2-1 after extra time.
Returning to the tournament in 2017, South Africa had a hard time in group D, finishing bottom of the pile behind Uruguay, Italy and Japan.
Amajita fell to Japan 2-1 despite taking an early lead, and lost 2-0 to Italy before recording a goalless draw with Uruguay to earn a lone point at the competition.
This was their worst performance on the global stage, not managing to score a goal in their three group games.
The nation secured a fourth appearance at the next edition in Poland in 2019 and were paired with Argentina, South Korea, and Portugal in group F.
South Africa were on the losing end of a block-buster spectacle in the opening fixture, falling to Argentina 5-2, with one Argentine goal coming from future FIFA World Cup winner Julián Alvarez.
Their performance was followed up by a 1-0 loss to South Korea before Amajita’s Thabiso Monyane drew his side level with Portugal to earn a draw in their final game of the tournament.
The crop of young stars heading off to Chile on Tuesday will hope to take South Africa to the knockout round for the second time and push further to improve on the nation’s past results.
Amajita begin their campaign on Monday against France at the Estadio El Teniente in Rancagua.
