Venezuela U20

Wuilker Fariñez came through the same setup that later sent Yangel Herrera to Manchester City and Yeferson Soteldo to Santos, and it is his generation's run that still defines what La Vinotinto's under-20 side is known for. In 2017, under coach Marcos Mathias, Venezuela reached the final of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea, a tournament no Venezuelan side of any age group had gone that far in before. They lost 1-0 to England at Suwon World Cup Stadium on 11 June, but the run itself, built on a defence marshalled by Fariñez in goal, had already made the point.

The Venezuelan Football Federation, which oversees the age-group side, traces back to December 1925 in Caracas, formally registered the following January as the Asociación Nacional de Football before taking its current name in 1951. The under-20 team's own beginnings are harder to pin down, though it was already competing by 1954, when Venezuela finished third at the inaugural South American U-20 Championship. The federation moved into a new headquarters at the Centro Comercial El Recreo in Caracas in March 2025, a 4,302 square metre site funded through FIFA's Forward programme.

A second final followed in 2022, this time at the Maurice Revello Tournament in France, where Raúl Chabrand's side lost 2-1 to the hosts. More recent campaigns have been leaner: sixth place in the 2023 South American Championship hexagonal under Ricardo Valiño, and a fifth-place finish at the 2025 COTIF Tournament. Fariñez himself moved on from the junior side years ago, first to Millonarios and later to APOEL, but it is still his run to the 2017 final that Venezuelan football keeps coming back to when the under-20s are mentioned.