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

• 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.

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

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

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

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

• 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

• January 2 – Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Dutch footballer
• January 3 – Patrick Cutrone, Italian footballer^[1]
• January 5 – Carles Aleñá, Spanish footballer
• January 8 – Manuel Locatelli, Italian footballer
• January 10 – Mohamed Abukar, Somali footballer^[2]
• January 11 – Salih Özcan, German midfielder
• January 16 – Odsonne Édouard, French footballer
• January 17 – Conner Blöte, Dutch footballer^[3]
• January 21 – Borna Sosa, Croatian youth international
• January 29 – Theo Maia, Brazilian professional footballer^[4]
• February 3 – Blás Riveros, Paraguayan footballer
• February 10 – Aitor Buñuel, Spanish footballer
• February 17 – Todd Cantwell, English footballer
• March 3 – Nathan Vitré, French professional footballer^[5]
• March 10 – Matías Zaracho, Argentinian footballer
• March 16 – Nico Rodewald, German footballer^[6]
• March 17 – Justin Neumann, German footballer^[7]
• March 23 – Ines Obradović, Montenegrin footballer^[8]
• March 28
  • John Håkansson, Swedish footballer^[9]
  • Sandi Lovric, Austrian footballer
• March 29 – Cemal Amet, Austrian footballer^[10]
• March 30 – Christopher Godet, Bahamian footballer^[11]
• March 31
  • Lucian Oprea, Romanian soccer player
  • Hristiyan Iliev, Bulgarian soccer player
• April 10
  • Jacob Brown, Scottish footballer
  • Dominik Sollfrank, German footballer^[12]
• April 21 – Victor Paraíba, Brazilian footballer^[13]
• April 24 – Elisabet Vang, Faroese footballer^[14]
• April 28 – Daniel Sadushi, Albanian footballer^[15]
• May 7
  • Alessandro Fratangelo, Italian footballer^[16]
  • Dani Olmo, Spanish footballer
• May 8 – Johannes Eggestein, German footballer
• May 11 – Fran Villalba, Spanish footballer
• May 23
  • Ross Cunningham, Scottish footballer
  • Luca De La Torre, American footballer
  • Berat Özdemir, Turkish footballer
• June 1 – Branimir Kalaica, Croatian footballer
• June 22 – Javairô Dilrosun, Dutch footballer
• June 28 – Óscar Rodríguez Arnaiz, Spanish footballer
• June 30
  • Tom Davies, English footballer
  • Houssem Aouar, French footballer
• July 6 – Hanna Lundell, Swedish footballer^[17]
• July 8 – Yann Karamoh, French footballer
• July 29 – Maximilian Schuster, German footballer^[18]
• September 1 – Emily Condon, Australian footballer
• September 2 – Lee Winroth, Swedish footballer^[19]
• September 7 – Roger Ramos, Portuguese footballer^[20]
• September 17 – Gabriel Justino, Brazilian footballer^[21]
• September 18 – Christian Pulisic, American soccer player
• September 19 – Jacob Bruun Larsen, Danish footballer
• October 21 – Benjamin Cull, English former professional footballer (died 2023)^[22]
• October 27 – Dayot Upamecano, French footballer
• November 12 – Jules Koundé, French footballer
• November 13 – Jovana Bajčetić, Montenegrin footballer^[23]
• November 24 – Muhammad Rafli, Indonesian footballer
• November 30 – Kenedy Có, Guinea-Bissauan professional footballer^[24]
• December 16 – Sara Husein, Macedonian footballer^[25]
• December 17 – Martin Ødegaard, Norwegian footballer
• December 18
  • Calvin Stengs, Dutch footballer
  • Manuel Trías, Venezuelan footballer^[26]
• December 20 – Kylian Mbappé, French footballer
• December 24 – Alexis Mac Allister, Argentine footballer
• December 25 – Hanna Simonsson, Swedish footballer^[27]
• December 29 – Victor Osimhen, Nigerian footballer

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

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

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

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

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