The 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Saudi Arabia between 16 February and 3 March 1989.

The tournament took place across four cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, and Ta'if.

For a list of all squads that played in the final tournament, see 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship squads The 16 teams were split into four groups of four teams.

Four group winners, and four second-place finishers qualify for the knockout round.

Oleg Salenko of Soviet Union won the Golden Boot award for scoring five goals.