Costa Rica U20

The senior side played its first match in September 1921. The under-20s went out into the world properly in 1962, at the first CONCACAF youth tournament in Panama, and finished fourth.

The work since has been steady rather than spectacular: nine appearances at the U-20 World Cup, two regional titles, two runners-up finishes. The one year that stands apart is 2009 . Costa Rica won the CONCACAF U-20 Championship, then travelled to Egypt and reached the semi-finals, going out and finishing fourth. The 1988 title had come two decades earlier; the runners-up places, in 1994 and 2011, sit either side of it.

More recent tournaments have been smaller in scale. A quarter-final in 2022 is the high point of the last decade; the group stage in 2013, 2017 and again in 2026 marks the rest. Christian Vella took charge for the Premundial Sub-20 fixture against Jamaica in July 2024, part of a regional calendar that now runs almost continuously against Mexico, the United States, Jamaica, Guatemala and Haiti.

Home is the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica in San José, in La Sabana park, the ground Costa Ricans call La Joya de La Sabana. It holds 35,062. There is no dedicated training base for the age group.

What the record still lacks is a final. Costa Rica have twice come within one match of a regional title and lost it, and in Egypt reached the last four without reaching the last two.