Yugoslavia national under-20 football team
The Yugoslavia national under-20 football team represented the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia at the FIFA World Youth Championship and various friendly youth tournaments in the period between the mid-1970s and the country's dissolution in the early 1990s. It was a feeder team to the Yugoslavia national under-21 football team. However, since FIFA employs the Under-20 format for the World Youth Championship ever since its inception in 1977, the Under-20 selection was only occasionally formed to compete specifically at the tournament, in addition to a handful of other less official friendly tournaments which employ the same age format.
The team which would compete at the World Championship essentially consisted of players who had earlier participated in the UEFA Junior Tournament, which was the European Under-18 championship and which doubled as the European qualifying tournament for the World Championship.
History
Yugoslavia Under-20 had appeared at two World Youth Championships throughout their existence. Their first appearance came at the 1979 tournament, where they were knocked out in the group stage after two defeats and one win. Their second appearance in the 1987 tournament was much more successful, as they won the competition, remarkably defeating each of the three other semi-finalists and eliminating the defending champions Brazil during the course of the tournament, with Robert Prosinečki winning the Golden Ball award for Best Player of the tournament.In their two appearances Yugoslavia set a FIFA World Youth Championship scoring record which still stands today, scoring an average of 3.66 goals per game, finishing with 22 goals for and 9 against. The team, coached by Mirko Jozić, had included a number of players who later appeared at FIFA World Cups, such as Zvonimir Boban, Davor Šuker, Robert Jarni, Igor Štimac, Branko Brnović and Predrag Mijatović.
The last European U-18 tournament in which Yugoslavia participated before the country dissolved was the 1992 European Under-18 Championship, and the Under-18's last competitive game was played on 17 October 1991 against Czechoslovakia national under-18 football team.
Following the country's dissolution in 1992, the team was succeeded by Under-20 teams of the newly formed ex-Yugoslav states' national teams:
- Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team
- Croatia national football team
- Macedonia national football team
- Slovenia national football team
- FR Yugoslavia national football team - renamed Serbia and Montenegro national football team and competed under that name 2003–2006 when it was dissolved and succeeded by:
- * Serbia national football team
- * Montenegro national football team
Tournament records
;FIFA World Youth Championship Record| Year | Round | GP | W | D* | L | GS | GA |
 1977 | Did not qualify | – | – | – | – | – | – |
 1979 | First round | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 3 |
 1981 | Did not qualify | – | – | – | – | – | – |
 1983 | Did not qualify | – | – | – | – | – | – |
 1985 | Did not qualify | – | – | – | – | – | – |
 1987 | Champions | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 6 |
 1989 | Did not qualify | – | – | – | – | – | – |
 1991 | Did not qualify | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 1993 | Did not qualify | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 2/9 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 22 | 9 |
Players
The following players were members of Yugoslavia Under-20 squads at the FIFA U-20 World Cup as well as various national squads at FIFA World Cup tournaments.| Player | Position | Youth World Cup | World Cup | Refs |
| Goalkeeper | 1979 | 1990 | ||
| Goalkeeper | 1979 | 1982 | ||
| Forward | 1979 | 1982 | ||
| Forward | 1979 | 1982 | ||
| Goalkeeper | 1987 | 1990, 1998 | ||
| Defender | 1987 | 1998 | ||
| Defender | 1987 | 1990, 1998, 2002 | ||
| Defender | 1987 | 1998 | ||
| Midfielder | 1987 | 1998 | ||
| Midfielder | 1987 | 1990, 1998, 2002 | ||
| Forward | 1987 | 1998 | ||
| Forward | 1987 | 1990, 1998, 2002 |
Letters in brackets denote national teams players represented at World Cups:
- YUG – Yugoslavia
- CRO – Croatia
- FRY – Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Scorers
The following players scored goals for the Yugoslavia Under-20 team at Youth World Cups. The team's overall top scorer was Davor Šuker, who scored 6 goals for Yugoslavia at the 1987 U-20 World Cup, and went on to become top scorer at the 1998 FIFA World Cup eleven years later, where he represented Croatia and also scored 6 goals.| Rank | Player | Goals | Tournament | Refs |
| Davor Šuker | 1987 | |||
| Zvonimir Boban | 1987 | |||
| Predrag Mijatović | 1987 | |||
| Nedeljko Milosavljević | 1979 | |||
| Haris Smajić | 1979 | |||
| Igor Štimac | 1987 | |||
| Branko Brnović | 1987 | |||
| Marko Mlinarić | 1979 | |||
| Robert Prosinečki | 1987 | |||
| Ranko Zirojević | 1987 |