Argentina used this tournament as a useful dress rehearsal for the 1993 Copa América in Ecuador and the 1994 FIFA World Cup USA ™. Coach Alfio Basile had a plethora of talented players at his disposal, with Sergio Goycochea, Oscar Ruggeri, Fernando Redondo, Leonardo Rodríguez, Diego Simeone, Claudio Caniggia and Gabriel Batistuta all making the long trip. Their first encounter with Côte d'Ivoire was over as a contest inside 10 minutes, Batistuta striking twice to ease the "Albiceleste" into the competition. Ricardo Altamirano and Alberto Acosta made it 4-0 in the second half, and the score could have been much higher had the South Americans not taken their foot off the gas towards the end. The FIFA World Cup finalists of two years earlier then defeated the hosts 3-1 with goals from Rodríguez, Simeone and Caniggia to lift the trophy and extend their unbeaten run to 20 matches.


The King Fahd Cup, as the tournament was originally called, had a straightforward four-team format on its first showing. The teams were drawn into two semi-finals: Argentina v Côte d'Ivoire and USA v Saudi Arabia. The winners met in the Final four days later, with the losers going on to compete for third place. Bora Milutinovic's USA side, with Tony Meola, Marcelo Balboa and Tabaré Ramos in its ranks, lost to Saudi Arabia in their semi, but beat Côte d'Ivoire 5-2 to earn a place on the podium.

Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Côte d'Ivoire and the United States.

Host cities
All the matches were played in Riyadh.

Top scorers

  1. Gabriel Batistuta (ARG), Bruce Murray (USA), 2 goals

  2. Al-Muwallid, Khalid Mussad (KSA), 1 goal

169,500 spectators

Average attendance
42,375 spectators