No country has won the championship twice in its brief history…
The Indian U-23 national team have already travelled to UAE (United Arab Emirates) to take part in the 2022 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualifiers.
The main event will take place in Uzbekistan from June 1 to June 19, 2022. 15 teams will make it to the final tournament from the qualification round and join the host nation. Then they will be divided into four groups and two teams from each pool will progress to the knock-out stage.
The Blue Colts are placed in Group E in the qualifiers alongside UAE, Oman and Kyrgyz Republic. India’s matches will be held at the Fujairah Stadium in UAE. Igor Stimac has named a 23-man squad for the upcoming matches which include familiar names like Amarjit Singh, Lalengmawia.
Although the tournament started to roll only in 2013 as the AFC U-23 Championship, it has been highly competitive as no nation has won the coveted trophy twice in its brief history.
Who were the previous winners? Find out below.
Iraq (2013)
Iraq became the inaugural champions of the competition after beating Saudi Arabia in the finals. A 33rd-minute strike from Abdul Raheem was enough to seal the victory. Iraq did not lose a single match in the competition and had conceded just two goals in six matches.
Japan (2016)
Japan lifted the trophy in the second edition after they beat South Korea in a thrilling final that ended with a scoreline of 3-2. The Young Samurais were trailing by 2-0 but an inspired performance from Takuma Asano tilted the scales in their favour and they scored three consecutive goals to clinch the title.
Uzbekistan (2018)
Uzbekistan emerged victorious in 2018 after triumphing over Vietnam in a hard-fought final. A 120th-minute strike from Andrey Sidorov broke Vietnamese hearts after the two teams fought tooth and nail throughout the match.
South Korea (2020)
After coming so near to silverware in 2016, South Korea finally got their hands on the trophy in 2020 after edging out Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the final. Jeong Tae-wook scored the solitary goal in the match in the 113th minute to hand the Green Falcons their second defeat in the finals of the competition.
| YEAR | CHAMPION | SCORE | RUNNER-UP | THIRD-PLACE |
| 2013 | Iraq | 1-0 | Saudi Arabia | Jordan |
| 2016 | Japan | 3-2 | South Korea | Iraq |
| 2018 | Uzbekistan | 2-1 | Vietnam | Qatar |
| 2022 | South Korea | 1-0 | Saudi Arabia | Australia |
Source: Source: Goal
