FIFA U-17 World Cup
The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by Fédération Internationale de Football Association. The current champion is Brazil, which won its fourth title at the 2019 tournament on home soil.
History
The FIFA U-17 World Cup is a competition that was inspired by the Lion City Cup that was created by the Football Association of Singapore in 1977. The Lion City Cup was the first under-16 football tournament in the world. Following FIFA's then secretary-general Sepp Blatter's recommendation after he was in Singapore for the 1982 Lion City Cup, FIFA created the FIFA U-16 World Championship.The first edition was staged in 1985 in China, and tournaments have been played every two years since then. It began as a competition for players under the age of 16 with the age limit raised to 17 from the 1991 edition onwards. The most recent tournament was hosted by India, for the first time, in 2017, which became the most attended in the history of the tournament, with the total attendance of the FIFA U-17 World Cup reaching 1,347,133.
Nigeria is the most successful nation in the tournament's history, with five titles and three runners up. Brazil is the second-most successful with four titles and two runners-up. Ghana and Mexico have won the tournament twice.
A corresponding tournament for female players, the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, began in 2008, with North Korea winning the inaugural tournament.
Structure
Each tournament consists of a group phase, in which four teams play against one another and standings in the group table decide which teams advance, followed by a knockout phase of successive matches where the winning team advances through the competition and the losing team is eliminated. This continues until two teams remain to contest the final, which decides the tournament winner. The losing semi-finalists also contest a match to decide third place.From 1985 to 2005 there were 16 teams in the competition, divided into four groups of four teams each in the group phase. Each team played the others in its group and the group winner and runner up qualified for the knockout phase. From 2007 the tournament was expanded to 24 teams, divided into six groups of four teams each. The top 2 places in each group plus the four best third-placed teams advanced to the knockout phase.
Competition matches are played in two 45-minute halves. In the knockout phase, until the 2011 tournament, if tied at the end of 90 minutes an additional 30 minutes of extra time were played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if still tied. Starting with the 2011 tournament, the extra time period was eliminated to avoid player burnout, and all knockout games progress straight to penalties if tied at the end of 90 minutes.
Qualification
The host nation of each tournament qualifies automatically. The remaining teams qualify through competitions organised by the six regional confederations. For the first edition of the tournament in 1985, all of the teams from Europe plus Bolivia appeared by invitation of FIFA.| Confederation | Championship |
| AFC | AFC U-16 Championship |
| CAF | African Under-17 Championship |
| CONCACAF | CONCACAF Under-17 Championship |
| CONMEBOL | South American Under-17 Football Championship |
| OFC | OFC U-16 Championship |
| UEFA | UEFA European Under-17 Football Championship |
Results
Summaries
Under-16
FIFA U-16 World Championship
Under-17
FIFA U-17 World Championship
FIFA U-17 World Cup
Notes:- a.e.t. - after extra time
- - match won on penalty shootout
Performances by countries
Performances by continental zones
is the most successful continental zone with 7 tournament wins and 6 times as runner up. Notably the 1993 final was contested by two African teams, when the final has been contested by two teams from the same confederation. The African teams repeated the 1993 final with Mali replacing Ghana in 2015 when Nigeria and Mali made it to the last two standing and Nigeria got their sixth win.South America has 3 tournament wins and has been runner up three times. Additionally Argentina has finished in third place on 3 occasions, Chile has done so on one occasion and Colombia has finished in fourth place twice, but neither of the latter two have ever appeared in the final.
Europe has 4 tournaments wins and has been runner up 6 times. Spain has been runner up on 4 occasions. Additionally Portugal and Netherlands have won third-place medals in 1989 and 2005 respectively.
The CONCACAF zone has 2 tournament wins, this confederation has reached the final four times.
Asia has 1 tournament win, the only time that a team from this confederation has reached the final and the only time an Asian team won a FIFA tournament in male category..
Oceania has no tournament wins and 1 occasion as runner up. Australia has since moved to the Asian confederation.
This tournament is peculiar in that the majority of titles have gone to teams from outside the strongest regional confederations. Of the fifteen editions held so far, nine have been won by teams from North and Central America, Africa and Asia.
Awards
The following awards are now presented:- The Golden Boot is awarded to the top goalscorer of the tournament.
- The Golden Ball is awarded to the most valuable player of the tournament.
- The Golden Glove is awarded to the most valuable goalkeeper of the tournament.
- The Fair Play Award is presented to the team with the best disciplinary record in the tournament.
| Tournament | Golden Ball | Golden Boot | Goals | Golden Glove | Fair Play |
 1985 China | William | Marcel Witeczek | 8 | Not Awarded | |
 1987 Canada | Philip Osundu | Moussa Traoré | 5 | Not Awarded | |
 1989 Scotland | James Will | Fode Camara | 3 | Not Awarded | |
 1991 Italy | Nii Lamptey | Adriano | 4 | Not Awarded | |
 1993 Japan | Daniel Addo | Wilson Oruma | 6 | Not Awarded | |
 1995 Ecuador | Mohammed Al-Kathiri | Daniel Allsopp | 5 | Not Awarded | |
 1997 Egypt | Sergio Santamaría | David | 7 | Not Awarded | |
 1999 New Zealand | Landon Donovan | Ishmael Addo | 7 | Not Awarded | |
 2001 Trinidad and Tobago | Florent Sinama Pongolle | Florent Sinama Pongolle | 9 | Not Awarded | |
 2003 Finland | Cesc Fàbregas | Cesc Fàbregas | 5 | Not Awarded | |
 2005 Peru | Anderson | Carlos Vela | 5 | Not Awarded | |
 2007 South Korea | Toni Kroos | Macauley Chrisantus | 7 | Not Awarded | |
 2009 Nigeria | Sani Emmanuel | Borja | 5 | Benjamin Siegrist | |
 2011 Mexico | Julio Gómez | Souleymane Coulibaly | 9 | Jonathan Cubero | |
 2013 United Arab Emirates | Kelechi Iheanacho | Valmir Berisha | 7 | Dele Alampasu | |
 2015 Chile | Kelechi Nwakali | Victor Osimhen | 10 | Samuel Diarra | |
 2017 India | Phil Foden | Rhian Brewster | 8 | Gabriel Brazão | |
 2019 Brazil | Gabriel Veron | Sontje Hansen | 6 | Matheus Donelli | |
| 2021 Peru | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA |