Venezuela U19

The squad trains at the Centro Nacional de Alto Rendimiento in La Carlota, Caracas, and it explains why match days for La Vinotinto's under-19 side move between grounds — the Estadio Monumental de Maturín, which holds around 51,000, or the Estadio José Encarnación Romero in Maracaibo, depending on which tournament calls.

Behind the age-group side sits the Venezuelan Football Federation, founded on 1 December 1925 in Caracas as the Asociación Nacional de Football, and the youth setup carries the senior team's colours: burgundy shirts, shorts and socks, white when playing away, under a badge redrawn in July 2023 with the shield picking up the tricolour of the national flag.

For a federation with no youth silverware to speak of for decades, the run to the final of the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea stands apart. Wuilker Fariñez kept goal and scored during that tournament, Yangel Herrera wore the armband, and the team that reached the final had already taken bronze at the CONMEBOL Sub-20 Championship that year — a finish it had managed only once before, in 1954, the first year Venezuela entered the youth championship at all. Rafael Dudamel managed that 2017 group; more recently Ricardo Valiño took charge in 2023 before leaving the post in 2025.

Beyond South Korea, the age group's other honours sit closer to home: gold at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games, silver in 2006, 2014 and 2018, and a last-16 finish at the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

None of that changes who the side actually measures itself against. In CONMEBOL's youth qualifying, Venezuela's path to any world championship runs through Argentina, Uruguay and Colombia, the same three names that have shaped the senior team's fortunes for years — there is no fixed derby at this level, only the recurring test of getting past them.