Slovenia shines as FIFG spotlights 2026 Youth World Championship in Germany

FIFG’s short reel put Slovenia’s youth success front and center, naming Lia Drevenšek and Maks Mai Kokol as Team Competition U16 winners while a results graphic showed Slovenia first in the ages 13-15 team standings. Slovakia, Spain, Hungary, Germany and France followed in that order.

The timing mattered because FIFG had already awarded Germany the Youth World Cup 2026 on February 6 after the FIFG Youth Committee and Board reviewed the original bids and said the first-round applications did not meet the standard required for a Youth World Cup. The event was set for Gahlenz, Saxony, at the Gahlenz Golf Complex, with FIFG materials listing July 16-19, 2026 and 127 players from 12 nations.

FIFG’s own framing placed the competition inside a wider development push. One post described the event as “three rounds” and “one incredible weekend of FootGolf,” while the federation’s news page called the opening a “historic milestone” as 22 nations came together to celebrate the future of the sport. That format matters for countries building youth depth: three rounds reward repeatable precision, and a multinational field exposes teenagers to pressure and styles they cannot duplicate in domestic training.

Slovenia’s showing suggested more than a one-off result. The same federation posts that highlighted Drevenšek and Kokol in U16 also showed Slovenia leading the younger age-group team standings, pointing to a pipeline that is producing players across divisions rather than in a single age bracket. For FootGolf nations trying to close the gap, the lesson is in the structure as much as the medals: consistent youth event exposure, visible progression between age groups and a championship environment that tests both individual accuracy and team scoring.

FIFG has been signaling that priority for some time. Its January 7, 2025 post, “Youth Development: Faith in Actions, Results in Sight,” laid out the federation’s commitment to the next generation, and the Germany event turned that message into a full-scale international stage. With 127 players, 12 nations and a 22-nation opening celebration, Youth World Cup 2026 gave Slovenia and its peers a clear benchmark for how early investment becomes international relevance.