Biography

2023 CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations

كأس أمم إفريقيا تحت 20 سنة 2023
Tournament details
Host country	Egypt
Dates	19 February – 11 March
Teams	12 (from 1 confederation)
Venue(s)	3 (in 3 host cities)
Final positions
Champions	Senegal (1st title)
Runners-up	Gambia
Third place	Nigeria
Fourth place	Tunisia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	26
Goals scored	54 (2.08 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Pape Diop (5 goals)[1]
Best player(s)	Lamine Camara[2]
Best goalkeeper	Landing Badji[3]
Fair play award	Nigeria[4]
← 2021 2025 →

The 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations (Arabic: كأس أمم إفريقيا تحت 20 سنة 2023, French: Coupe d'Afrique des nations de football des moins de 20 ans 2023), known as the 2023 U20 AFCON or 2023 AFCON U20 for short and as the 2023 TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship purposes, was the 17th edition (24th if editions of the tournament without hosts are included) of the biennial African international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football, currently hosted in Egypt from 19 February to 11 March 2023. Senegal won the tournament for the first time, defeating Gambia in the final and did not concede a single goal the entire tournament.^[5]

This edition of the tournament also doubles as the African qualifiers for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina where teams who reached the semi-finals stage qualified automatically and also for the 2023 African Games in Accra, Ghana where teams who reached the quarter-finals stage qualified automatically too.

Ghana were the defending champions following their 4th title win in 2021, but failed to qualify for this edition after losing to Nigeria in the WAFU sub-regional qualification tournament.^[6][7]

Qualification

Player eligibility

Players born 1 January 2003 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.

Qualified teams

The following 12 teams qualified for the group stages:

Team	Zone	Date of qualification	Appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance
Egypt (hosts)	North Zone	16 May 2021	12th	2017	Champions (1991, 2003, 2013)
Tunisia		24 October 2022	2nd	2021	Fourth place (2021)
Benin	West B Zone	17 May 2022	3rd	2013	Third place (2005)
Nigeria		17 May 2022	12th	2019	Champions (2005, 2011, 2015)
Senegal	West A Zone	9 September 2022	6th	2019	Runners-up (2015, 2017, 2019)
Gambia		9 September 2022	4th	2021	Third place (2007, 2021)
Central African Republic	Central Zone	14 December 2022	2nd	2021	Quarter-finals (2021)
Congo		14 December 2022	3rd	2015	Champions (2007)
Uganda	Central-East Zone	8 November 2022	2nd	2021	Runners-up (2021)
South Sudan		8 November 2022	1st	None	Debut
Mozambique	South Zone	14 October 2022	2nd	2021	Group stage (2021)
Zambia		14 October 2022	8th	2017	Champions (2017)

Venues

Cairo Alexandria Ismailia		Cairo	Ismailia
		Cairo International Stadium	Suez Canal Stadium
		Capacity: 75,000	Capacity: 22,000
		Alexandria
		Haras El Hodoud Stadium[8]	Alexandria Stadium
		Capacity: 22,000	Capacity: 20,000

Match officials

On 18 February 2023, CAF announced a total of 16 referees (including 2 women), 18 assistant referees (including 4 women) and 6 video assistant referees (VAR) appointed for the tournament.^[9][10]

Referees

Assistant referees

Video assistant referees

Squads

Draw

The draw for the group stage was held at CAF's headquarters in Cairo, Egypt on 23 December 2022 at 19:00 EST (UTC+2).^[11] The 12 teams were drawn into 3 groups of 4 with the teams seeded according to their performance in the previous edition of the tournament. Hosts Egypt automatically seeded and assigned to Position A1 in the draw.

Pot 1	Pot 2	Pot 3
Egypt (hosts)  Uganda (2)  Gambia (3)	Tunisia (4)  Central African Republic (8)  Mozambique (11)	Nigeria (NR)  Zambia (NR)  Senegal (NR)  Benin (NR)  Congo (NR)  South Sudan (NR)

Group stage

The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals along with the two best 3rd-placed teams.

Tiebreakers

Teams are ranked according to points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw and none for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tie-breaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 13).^[12]

1. Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
2. Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
3. Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
4. If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
5. Goal difference in all group matches;
6. Goals scored in all group matches;
7. Drawing of lots.

All times are in EST (UTC+2).

Group A

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Senegal	3	3	0	0	8	0	+8	9	Knockout stage
2	Nigeria	3	2	0	1	3	1	+2	6
3	Egypt (H)	3	0	1	2	0	5	−5	1[a]
4	Mozambique	3	0	1	2	0	5	−5	1[a]

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Group B

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Uganda	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5[a]	Knockout stage
2	Congo	3	1	2	0	4	3	+1	5[a]
3	South Sudan	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
4	Central African Republic	3	0	1	2	1	3	−2	1

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Group C

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Gambia	3	3	0	0	4	0	+4	9	Knockout stage
2	Tunisia	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4
3	Benin	3	0	2	1	1	2	−1	2
4	Zambia	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

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Ranking of third-placed teams

Pos	Grp	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	B	South Sudan	3	1	1	1	2	2	0	4	Knockout stage
2	C	Benin	3	0	2	1	1	2	−1	2
3	A	Egypt	3	0	1	2	0	5	−5	1

Knockout stage

	Quarter-finals				Semi-finals				Final
	2 March – Cairo
	Senegal	1
					6 March – Suez
	Benin	0
					Senegal	3
	3 March – Cairo
					Tunisia	0
	Congo	3 (4)
									11 March – Cairo
	Tunisia (p)	3 (5)
									Senegal	2
	3 March – Alexandria
									Gambia	0
	Gambia	5
					6 March – Cairo
	South Sudan	0
					Gambia	1
	2 March – Suez
					Nigeria	0			Third place
	Uganda	0
									10 March – Cairo
	Nigeria	1
									Tunisia	0
									Nigeria	4

Quarter-finals

Winners qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

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Semi-finals

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Third place

Final

Goalscorers

There were 54 goals scored in 26 matches, for an average of 2.08 goals per match.

5 goals

4 goals

2 goals

1 goal

1 own goal

Awards

The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:

Player of the Tournament
Lamine Camara[14]
Top Scorer
Pape Diop[15] (5 goals)
Best Goalkeeper
Landing Badji[16]
Best Coach
Malick Daf ( Senegal)
CAF Fair Play Team
Nigeria[17]

Team of the Tournament

Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards
Landing Badji	Augustine Njoku Seydou Sano Alagie Saine Solomon Agbalaka	Pape Diop Lamine Camara Prince Soussou	Adama Bojang Deogracias Bassinga Rogers Mugisha

Qualified teams for the FIFA U-20 World Cup

The following teams from CAF qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina.^[18]

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup1
Senegal	2 March 2023	3 (2015, 2017, 2019)
Nigeria	2 March 2023	12 (1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1999, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2019)
Gambia	3 March 2023	1 (2007)
Tunisia	3 March 2023	2 (1977, 1985)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

Qualified teams for the 2023 African Games

The following teams qualified for the 2023 African Games men's football tournament in Accra, Ghana.

Team	Qualified on	Previous appearances in African Games1
Ghana	Host nation	7 (1973, 1978, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019)
Nigeria	25 February 2023	7 (1973, 1978, 1991, 1995, 2003, 2015, 2019)
Senegal		5 (1987, 2003, 2011, 2015, 2019)
Congo	26 February 2023	4 (1965, 1973, 1995, 2015)
South Sudan		0 (debut)
Uganda		4 (1965, 1991, 1999, 2011)
Benin	27 February 2023	0 (debut)
Gambia		0 (debut)
Tunisia		3 (1987, 1991, 2007)

¹ Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.

See also

• 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations

References