| Tourney Name: | U-20 Africa Cup of Nations |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Other Titles: | كأس أمم إفريقيا تحت 20 سنة 2021 Coupe d'Afrique des Nations des U-20 2021 |
| Country: | Mauritania |
| Dates: | 14 February – 6 March[1] |
| Num Teams: | 12 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 3 |
| Cities: | 2 |
| Count: | 4 |
| Matches: | 26 |
| Goals: | 52 |
| Top Scorer: |  Derrick Kakooza(5 goals) |
| Player: |  Abdul Fatawu |
| Prevseason: | 2019 |
| Nextseason: | 2023 |
The 2021 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations was the 16th edition (23rd edition if editions of the tournament without hosts are included), the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 20 and below. In September 2018, it was decided that the tournament would be hosted by Mauritania.[2] [3] [4] [5] This would be the first edition of the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations to be expanded to 12 teams instead of eight.[6] The top four teams of the tournament would have normally qualified for the 2021 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Indonesia as the CAF representatives. However, FIFA decided to cancel the tournament on 24 December 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[7]
The defending champions Mali failed to qualify. Ghana won their fourth title by defeating debutant Uganda in the final.
See main article: 2021 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations qualification.
At the end of the qualification phase, eleven teams will join the hosts Mauritania.
Players born 1 January 2001 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.
The following 12 teams qualified for the group stages.
Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of the competition in 1991.
| Team | Zone | data-sort-type="number" | Appearance | Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (hosts) | West A Zone | 1st | ||
| North Zone | 5th | (1997) | ||
| North Zone | 1st | |||
| West A Zone | 3rd | (2007) | ||
| West B Zone | 12th | (1993, 1999, 2009) | ||
| West B Zone | 4th | (2003) | ||
| Central-East Zone | 1st | |||
| Central-East Zone | 1st | |||
| Central Zone | 1st | |||
| Central Zone | 10th | (1995) | ||
| South Zone | 1st | |||
| South Zone | 1st |
| Nouakchott | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stade Olympique | Stade Cheikha Ould Boïdiya | |
| Capacity: 20,000 | Capacity: 8,200 | |
| width=160 | Nouadhibou ! | |
| Stade Municipal de Nouadhibou | ||
| Capacity: 10,300 | ||
The group stage draw was held on 25 January 2021, 11:00 AM WAT (UTC+1), at the Hilton Hotel in Cameroon.[8] The twelve teams were drawn into three groups of four teams. The hosts, Mauritania, were seeded in Group A and allocated to position A1, with Ghana and Burkina Faso, the only teams among the 12 who participated in the last edition of the CAN Total U20, drawn into B1 & C1 positions. All the other teams were in the same level and were distributed over the three groups.
A total of 16 referees and 18 assistant referees were appointed for the tournament.[9]
Referees
Jean Ouattara (Burkina Faso)
Blaise Yuven Ngwa (Cameroon)
Samuel Uwikunda (Rwanda)
Ibrahim Kalilou Traoré (Ivory Coast)
Celso Alvacao (Mozambique)
Mutaz Ibrahim Al-Shalmani (Libya)
Pierre Ghislain Atcho (Gabon)
Souleiman Ahmed Djama (Djibouti)
Adalbert Diouf (Senegal)
Mehrez Melki (Tunisia)Assistant Referees
Samuel Kuria (Kenya)
Michael Conteh (Sierra Leone)
Modibo Samake (Mali)
Tigle Gizaw Belachew (Ethiopia) Rodrigue Menye Mpele (Cameroon)
Clemence Kanduku (Malawi) Kwasi Brobbey (Ghana) Aymen Ismail (Tunisia)
Eric Ayimavo (Benin)
Youssef Wahid Elbosaty (Egypt) Adia Cisse (Senegal)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 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 71):
All times are in WAT (UTC+1).[10]
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The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
| Player of the Tournament | |
|---|---|
| Abdul Fatawu Issahaku[11] | |
| Top Scorer | |
| Derrick Kakooza | |
| Best Goalkeeper | |
| Ibrahim Danlad | |
| Best Coach | |
| Morley Byekwaso | |
| CAF Fair Play Team | |
Source:
Coach: Morley Byekwaso
Per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by a penalty shoot-out are counted as draws.
|-| colspan="11"| Eliminated in the quarter-finals|-|-| colspan="11"| Eliminated in group stage|-
|}