Gianni Infantino has visited the headquarters of the Argentina's Liga Profesional de Fútbol (LPF) where he met the presidents and directors of the country’s first division clubs. They talked about future collaboration and the success of the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2023 ™ which took place in the country and finished on Sunday, while the LPF paid homage to the FIFA President by naming its conference room after him.

Accompanied by the President of the Argentinian Football Association (AFA), Claudio Tapia, and FIFA Legend Youri Djorkaeff, Mr Infantino also met Argentina’s Minister for Sports and Tourism Matías Lammens. The club representatives included the former Argentina international Juan Roman Riquelme, a director of Boca Juniors. The LPF, an internal body of the AFA, was set up in 2020 to organise the Priméra Division, the top flight of the country’s football league.

“I feel at home in Argentina……and at this FIFA Under-20 World Cup, the Argentinian fans showed again that they are the best fans in the world. I will take with me the conviction that there is a lot we can do with Argentinian football, with President Tapia and the clubs,” said Mr Infantino, who was visiting the country for the fourth time since he was elected FIFA President in 2016.

“Argentina are not just world champions but should also be leaders in world football, and at FIFA we must have very close relations with important countries like Argentina.”

Mr Lammens said that the FIFA Under-20 World Cup had brought 415,000 tourists to Argentina and was worth USD 362 million to its economy. “Together with the president of the AFA Claudio Tapia, we welcomed Gianni Infantino to our country, and we conducted an overview of the (FIFA) under-20 World Cup which we organised in record time and with great success in our provinces,” he said.

Argentina staged the 24-team tournament after stepping in as hosts little more than month before the start. Mr Infantino attended Sunday’s final which saw Uruguay beat Italy 1-0 to win the title for the first time.

Mr Tapia took expressed his gratitude to everyone who worked at the tournament. “Thank you very much to the FIFA volunteers, to those responsible for security, the health professionals and to everyone who worked silently so that the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in our country could be a resounding success,” he said.