1998 in association football

The following are the association football events of the year 1998 throughout the world.

Events

• 1998 FIFA World Cup – France wins 3–0 over Brazil in Saint-Denis, France, winning their first cup. More than one million delirious fans jammed the Champs-Élysées, dancing through the night.
• UEFA Champions League: Real Madrid won 1–0 in the final against Juventus. This was Real Madrid's seventh European Cup title.
• Copa Libertadores 1998: Won by Vasco da Gama after defeating Barcelona SC on an aggregate score of 4–1.
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: Chelsea beat VfB Stuttgart 1–0 in the final, winning the Cup for the second time.
• UEFA Cup: Inter Milan won 3–0 in the final against Lazio. This was Inter's third UEFA Cup title.
• UEFA Super Cup: Chelsea beat Real Madrid 1–0, winning the cup for the first time.
• England:
  • FA Premier League Champions: Arsenal.
• February 17 – Manchester City fires manager Frank Clark and appoints Joe Royle as his successor.
• May 16 – Arsenal beats Newcastle United 2–0 to win the FA Cup, achieving The Double.
• August 16 – PSV wins the Johan Cruyff Shield, the annual opening of the new season in the Eredivisie, by a 2–0 win over Ajax in the Amsterdam Arena.
• September 17 – Heerenveen makes a winning European debut after defeating Poland's Amica Wronki (3–1) in the first round of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup.
• October 8 – Manager Artur Jorge resigns at Dutch club Vitesse and is succeeded by Herbert Neumann.
• October 10 – Frank Rijkaard makes his debut as the manager of the Netherlands national team, as the successor of Guus Hiddink, with a 2–0 friendly win over Peru in Eindhoven. One player makes his debut as well: striker Jeffrey Talan from Heerenveen.
• December 1 – Real Madrid wins the Intercontinental Cup in Tokyo by defeating Brazil's Vasco da Gama: 2–1. The winning goal for the Spaniards is scored by Raúl in the 83rd minute.
• December 7 – Dutch club Sparta Rotterdam fires manager Hans van der Zee. He is replaced by Jan Everse on December 24.

Winner national club championships

Asia

• Iran – Esteghlal FC
• Japan – Kashima Antlers
• Qatar – Al-Ittihad
• South Korea - Suwon Bluewings
• Thailand - Sinthana F.C.

Europe

• Croatia – Croatia Zagreb
• England – Arsenal
• France – Lens
• Germany – 1. FC Kaiserslautern
• Hungary – Újpest
• Italy – Juventus
• Netherlands
  • Eredivisie – Ajax
  • Eerste Divisie – AZ
• Poland – ŁKS Łódź
• Portugal – Porto
• Scotland – Celtic
• Spain – Barcelona
• Sweden – AIK
• Turkey – Galatasaray
• FR Yugoslavia – Obilić

North America

• Canada – St. Catharines Wolves (CPSL)
• Mexico
  • Verano – Toluca
  • Invierno – Necaxa
• United States – Chicago Fire (MLS)

South America

• Argentina
  • Clausura – Vélez Sársfield
  • Apertura – Boca Juniors
• Bolivia – Blooming
• Brazil – Corinthians
• Chile – Colo-Colo
• Ecuador – LDU Quito
• Paraguay – Olimpia Asunción
• Peru – Universitario de Deportes

International tournaments

• African Cup of Nations in Burkina Faso (February 7 – 28 1998)
  1. Egypt
  2. South Africa
  3. DR Congo
• Baltic Cup (April 21 – June 25, 1998)
  1. Lithuania
  2. Latvia
  3. Estonia
• FIFA World Cup in France (June 10 – July 12, 1998)
  1. France
  2. Brazil
  3. Croatia

National team results

Europe

Estonia

Main article: Estonia national football team 1998

South America

Bolivia

The men's national senior squad didn't play any matches in 1998

Chile

Main article: Chile national football team 1998

Ecuador

Main article: Ecuador national football team 1998

Births

• January 2 – Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Dutch footballer
• January 3 – Patrick Cutrone, Italian footballer
• January 4 – Joel Kalonji, Belgian footballer
• January 5 – Carles Aleñá, Spanish footballer
• January 6 – Ben Pollock, American soccer player
• January 7 – Siebe Schets, Dutch footballer
• January 8 – Manuel Locatelli, Italian footballer
• January 10 – Mohamed Abukar, Somali footballer
• January 11 – Salih Özcan, German midfielder
• January 16 – Odsonne Édouard, French footballer
• January 17 – Conner Blöte, Dutch footballer
• January 20 – Tiziano Andrei, Italian footballer
• January 21 – Borna Sosa, Croatian youth international
• January 27 – Cezar Trandafirescu, Romanian professional footballer
• January 29 – Theo Maia, Brazilian professional footballer
• January 31 – Lukas Prayitno, Indonesian professional footballer
• February 3 – Blás Riveros, Paraguayan footballer
• February 5 – Jorge Luis Ortiz, Mexican professional footballer
• February 10 – Aitor Buñuel, Spanish footballer
• February 16 – Alessio Tissone, Italian footballer
• February 17 – Todd Cantwell, English footballer
• February 23 – Jan-Kristian Thurner, Austrian footballer
• February 28 – Maksim Sklyarov, Russian former footballer
• March 3 – Nathan Vitré, French professional footballer
• March 10
  • Alessio Garofalo, Italian footballer
  • Matías Zaracho, Argentinian footballer
• March 13 – Oh Jang-won, South Korean footballer
• March 14 – Joaquim Soumahin, Italian footballer
• March 16 – Nico Rodewald, German footballer
• March 17 – Justin Neumann, German footballer
• March 23 – Ines Obradović, Montenegrin footballer
• March 28
  • John Håkansson, Swedish footballer
  • Sandi Lovric, Austrian footballer
• March 29 – Cemal Amet, Austrian footballer
• March 30 – Christopher Godet, Bahamian footballer
• March 31
  • Lucian Oprea, Romanian soccer player
  • Hristiyan Iliev, Bulgarian soccer player
• April 2 – Matías Parada, Chilean footballer
• April 10
  • Jacob Brown, Scottish footballer
  • Dominik Sollfrank, German footballer
• April 13 – Emmanuel Adariku, Nigerian professional footballer
• April 21 – Victor Paraíba, Brazilian footballer
• April 24 – Elisabet Vang, Faroese footballer
• April 28 – Daniel Sadushi, Albanian footballer
• May 4 – Diego Acunzo, Italian footballer
• May 7
  • Alessandro Fratangelo, Italian footballer
  • Dani Olmo, Spanish footballer
• May 8 – Johannes Eggestein, German footballer
• May 11 – Fran Villalba, Spanish footballer
• May 21 – Felipe Egídio, Brazilian footballer
• May 22 – Gastón Gorrostorrazo, Uruguayan footballer
• May 23
  • Ross Cunningham, Scottish footballer
  • Luca De La Torre, American footballer
  • Berat Özdemir, Turkish footballer
• May 27 – Jeffrey Egbe, Austrian footballer
• June 1 – Branimir Kalaica, Croatian footballer
• June 22 – Javairô Dilrosun, Dutch footballer
• June 28 – Óscar Rodríguez Arnaiz, Spanish footballer
• June 30
  • Serbay Can, Turkish professional footballer
  • Tom Davies, English footballer
  • Houssem Aouar, French footballer
• July 6 – Hanna Lundell, Swedish footballer
• July 8 – Yann Karamoh, French footballer
• July 22 – Nick Lim, Dutch footballer
• July 25 – Ryan Laplace, French footballer
• July 29 – Maximilian Schuster, German footballer
• August 16 – Max Grundmann, German footballer
• September 1
  • Emily Condon, Australian footballer
  • Marvin Thiele, German footballer
• September 2 – Lee Winroth, Swedish footballer
• September 7 – Roger Ramos, Portuguese footballer
• September 16 – Noah Feil, German footballer
• September 17 – Gabriel Justino, Brazilian footballer
• September 18 – Christian Pulisic, American soccer player
• September 19 – Jacob Bruun Larsen, Danish footballer
• September 26 – Tarik Džindo, Bosnian professional footballer
• October 21 – Benjamin Cull, English former professional footballer (died 2023)
• October 27 – Dayot Upamecano, French footballer
• November 1 – Pascal Pannier, German footballer
• November 12 – Jules Koundé, French footballer
• November 13 – Jovana Bajčetić, Montenegrin footballer
• November 24 – Muhammad Rafli, Indonesian footballer
• November 27 – Katarína Košlabová, Slovak footballer
• November 30 – Kenedy Có, Guinea-Bissauan professional footballer
• December 9 – Tamar Dolidze, Georgian footballer
• December 16 – Sara Husein, Macedonian footballer
• December 17 – Martin Ødegaard, Norwegian footballer
• December 18
  • Calvin Stengs, Dutch footballer
  • Manuel Trías, Venezuelan footballer
• December 20 – Kylian Mbappé, French footballer
• December 24 – Alexis Mac Allister, Argentine footballer
• December 25 – Hanna Simonsson, Swedish footballer
• December 29 – Victor Osimhen, Nigerian footballer

Deaths

May

• May 2 – Justin Fashanu (38), English footballer and the first professional footballer to come out as gay

June

• June 4 – Miguel Montuori (65), Argentinian-Chilean footballer
• June 13 – Fernand Sastre (74), French footballer

July

• July 13 – Pierre Garonnaire (82), French footballer

August

• August 6 – Henk Bosveld (57), Dutch footballer

September

• September 2 – Jackie Blanchflower (65), Northern Irish footballer
• September 23 – Héctor Vilches, Uruguayan defender, winner of the 1950 World Cup. (88)