La Celeste’s maiden Under-20 World Cup crown ends a streak of four consecutive titles for European teams in the tournament.

Rodríguez scored the winning goal in the 86th minute with a header from close range after Uruguay had dominated much of Sunday’s match.

More than 40,000 people, mostly supporting Uruguay, attended the match at the Diego Maradona Stadium. FIFA President Gianni Infantino was also present.

Uruguay barely needed to count on their highly regarded defence, which conceded just three goals for the entire tournament, all against England in the group stage.

The South American team had clear chances to open the scoring much earlier, with a free kick taken by Rodríguez, two long distance shots by captain Fabricio Díaz and a header by Anderson Duarte all missing their mark.

“This is crazy, crazy, crazy and we deserve it,” a tearful Rodríguez said after the match. “We are living a dream.”

Italy’s Cesare Casadei, the top tournament’s top scorer with seven goals, had a disappointing performance in the final.

While Italy coach Carmine Nunziata acknowledged that Uruguay deserved their win, he said the pitch condition affected his players.

“The pitch has penalised any player who has more skills,” Nunziata said.

“We had an incredible run. This match doesn’t cancel what we have done, playing all these matches is not easy. They were better than us today.”

Neither Uruguay nor Italy were among the favorites when the U20 World Cup kicked off on May 20, but unlike Brazil, Argentina and England they faced less resistance from clubs about releasing players for the tournament.

It is not mandatory for clubs to allow their players to take part in international youth competitions.

Uruguay lost the final of the tournament in 1997 and 2013, while Brazil was the last South American winner in 2011.

The title for La Celeste comes in the wake of Argentina’s World Cup title in December, which also ended a sequence of wins by European teams.

Earlier, debutant Israel beat South Korea 3-1 to secure third place in the same stadium in La Plata.

Indonesia was initially scheduled to host the tournament, but the Muslim-majority country did not accept Israel’s participation.

FIFA decided to hand the organisation over to Argentina one month before kickoff.

AAP