Tournament of Toulon

The Toulon tournament or Le Festival International Espoirs de Toulon et du Var is the most important football competition in this age group , alongside the U-21 European Championships . The tournament is not a competition organized by UEFA . It is held annually. In addition to the best team, the best shooter, player and goalkeeper are determined. The games will be played in the Var département in the south of France , with the final taking place in Toulon . The tournament took place four times with German participation.

history

The forerunner of this traditional tournament was held for the first time in 1967. At that time, however, from six club teams. The RSC Anderlecht won the final against ŠK Slovan Bratislava 1: 0th The French representative at the time was Olympique Nîmes , who reached third place.

Since 1974 the junior teams (U-20, U-21 or U-23) from different countries have been competing for triumph in this tournament. The winners at the time were the guests from Poland, who were able to prevail against the Hungarian selection. After only four teams started in 1974, the number increased to eight in 1975. A year later, the hosts were in the final for the first time. But it was the end of the line against the team from Argentina, which also became the first non-European winners. In 1977 the French were able to call the trophy their own for the first time and secured the trophy with a 1-0 win. In 1979, the USSR was the first team from the Asian continent to win the tournament in Toulon. In the mid to late 80s, the Le Bleus junior team made it into the finals six times and won five games. Only the Bulgarians in 1986 were able to paroli the French team and defeat them 1-0. During this time, the German juniors achieved their best placement so far. In 1983 the team came fourth under the supervision of Berti Vogts . At that time, players like Axel Brummer , Thomas Brunner , Thomas Herbst , Ralf Loose , Alfred Schön and Rüdiger Vollborn were in the squad of what would later become the German national team's selection coach. In the 1990s, a new super-opponent built up. Between 1990 and 1994, the English team reached four finals and won all comparisons. Only in the 1992 final did two other teams face each other, Portugal and Yugoslavia. The Portuguese prevailed at that time and won their first title in Toulon. When Brazil won the final in 1995, South American dominance emerged until 2002. In addition to the Brazilians, the teams from Argentina and, for the first time, Colombia also triumphed during this time. In 1998 the German team was invited for the second time. Uli Stielike only achieved a disappointing seventh place with the later national players Robert Enke , Frank Fahrenhorst and Ingo Hertzsch . The next invitation came as early as 2002, but this time, too, the then coach Hannes Löhr was unsuccessful. However, players like Thomas Hitzlsperger and Benjamin Lauth contributed to reaching fifth place. The French have regained their strength since 2004 and have won the competition four times in a row. It wasn't until 2008 that Italy broke the host's winning streak. At the last tournament with German participation in 2007, the troops headed by then coach Dieter Eilts ended with just one point and a goal difference of 2: 6 after the preliminary round. Patrick Ebert and Ashkan Dejagah were the only two goalscorers for the U-21 DFB selection. So far there have been no finals with German participation.

Honors

Only Rainer Ernst , from the GDR team, was voted best player in 1982. Other later world stars such as the field players Didier Deschamps , Jean-Pierre Papin , Alan Shearer , Rui Costa , Thierry Henry , Juan Román Riquelme and the goalkeepers Taffarel , Grégory Coupet already showed their skills at this junior tournament and were honored. The players Gérard Soler , Alan Shearer, Rui Costa, Florian Maurice , Thierry Henry, Tressor Moreno and Kevin Gameiro were the only ones who received the trophy for both the best goalscorer and the best player. The goalkeepers Boris Manolkov , Nuno Santos and Fabio were the only participants so far who were able to defend their title as the best player or goalkeeper in the following years.

Rules of the game

The playing time is 40 minutes twice. The half-time break is only ten minutes instead of 15 minutes. If it is still a draw after the regular playing time, it goes straight to a penalty shoot-out and not into extra time . Otherwise, the official football rules of the world football association FIFA will be used .

Previous winners gentlemen

year	winner	Final opponent	Result
1967	RSC Anderlecht	Slovan Bratislava	1-0
1974	Poland	Hungary	3: 2
1975	Argentina	France	1-0
1976	Bulgaria	France	3: 2
1977	France	Bulgaria	1-0
1978	Hungary	France	4: 3
1979	Soviet Union	Netherlands	2-0
1980	Brazil	France	2: 1
1981	Brazil	Czechoslovakia	2-0
1982	Yugoslavia	Czechoslovakia	2: 2
1983	Brazil	Argentina	1: 1
1984	France	Soviet Union	1: 1
1985	France	England	3: 1
1986	Bulgaria	France	1-0
1987	France	Bulgaria	1: 1
1988	France	England	4: 2
1989	France	Bulgaria	3-0
1990	England	Czechoslovakia	2: 1
1991	England	France	1-0
1992	Portugal	Yugoslavia	2: 1
1993	England	France	1-0
1994	England	Portugal	2-0
1995	Brazil	France	1-0
1996	Brazil	France	1: 1
1997	France	Portugal	2: 1
1998	Argentina	France	2-0
1999	Colombia	Argentina	1: 1
2000	Colombia	Portugal	1: 1
2001	Portugal	Colombia	2: 1
2002	Brazil	Italy	2-0
2003	Portugal	Italy	3: 1
2004	France	Sweden	1-0
2005	France	Portugal	4: 1
2006	France	Netherlands	0-0
2007	France	China	3: 1
2008	Italy	Chile	1-0
2009	Chile	France	1-0
2010	Ivory Coast	Denmark	3: 2
2011	Colombia	France	1: 1, 3: 1 n.e.
2012	Mexico	Turkey	3-0
2013	Brazil	Colombia	1-0
2014	Brazil	France	5: 2
2015	France	Morocco	3: 1
2016	England	France	2: 1
2017	England	Ivory Coast	1: 1, 5: 3 n.e.
2018	England	Mexico	2: 1
2019	Brazil	Japan	1: 1, 5: 4 n.e.

Ladies tournament

In 2018 a tournament for women was held for the first time. Participants were France, Germany, Haiti and the USA. The tournament was held as a round-robin tournament

Previous winners women

year	winner	Runner-up
2018	United States	France
2019	North Korea	Japan

Awards women

year	Goalscorer	Goalkeeper	Best player	Fair play
2018	Sophia Smith	Mylène Chavas	Sophia Smith	France
2019	Kim Kyong Yong	Yu Son Gum	Silvana Flores	Japan

Web links

• Tournament homepage (French)
• Results overview of the tournament
• Tournament of Toulon - The tournament history on dfb.de.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Tournament in Toulon - schedule on dfb.de.
2. ^ A2 Milli Takımı, Toulon Turnuvası'nda ikinci oldu in tff.org from June 2, 2012
3. ^ First ladies' tournament , report on festival-foot-espoirs.com, page in English, accessed on July 4, 2018