| Tourney Name: | CAF U-20 Africa Cup of Nations |
| Year: | 2023 |
| Country: | Egypt |
| Dates: | 19 February – 11 March |
| Num Teams: | 12 |
| Confederations: | 1 |
| Venues: | 3 |
| Cities: | 3 |
| Count: | 1 |
| Matches: | 26 |
| Goals: | 54 |
| Top Scorer: | Pape Diop [1] |
| Player: | Lamine Camara[2] |
| Fair Play: | [3] |
| Goalkeeper: | Landing Badji[4] |
| Prevseason: | 2021 |
| Nextseason: | 2025 |
The 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations (ar|كأس أمم إفريقيا تحت 20 سنة 2023, fr|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.Egypt hosted the tournament, which took place from 19 February to 11 March 2023. The tournament involved 12 teams, 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]
See main article: 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations qualification.
Players born 1 January 2003 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.
The following 12 teams qualified for the group stages:
| Team | Zone | Date of qualification | data-sort-type="number" | Appearance | Last appearance | Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (hosts) | 12th | (1991, 2003, 2013) | ||||
| 2nd | (2021) | |||||
| 3rd | (2005) | |||||
| 12th | (2005, 2011, 2015) | |||||
| 6th | (2015, 2017, 2019) | |||||
| 4th | (2007, 2021) | |||||
| 2nd | (2021) | |||||
| 3rd | (2007) | |||||
| 2nd | (2021) | |||||
| 1st | None | |||||
| 2nd | (2021) | |||||
| 8th | (2017) |
| colspan= | 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 | |||
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
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.
| width=33% | Pot 1 | width=33% | Pot 2 | width=33% | Pot 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| valign=top | valign=top | valign=top |
The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals along with the two best 3rd-placed teams.
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]
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Winners qualify for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup.------------
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See main article: 2023 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations final.
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:
| Player of the Tournament | |
|---|---|
| Lamine Camara[13] | |
| Top Scorer | |
| Pape Diop[14] | |
| Best Goalkeeper | |
| Landing Badji[15] | |
| Best Coach | |
 Malick Daf | |
| CAF Fair Play Team | |
| [16] |
The following teams from CAF qualified for the 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Argentina.[17]
| Team | Qualified on | data-sort-type="number" | Previous appearances in FIFA U-20 World Cup1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 (2015, 2017, 2019) | |||
| 12 (1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1999, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2019) | |||
| 1 (2007) | |||
| 2 (1977, 1985) |
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.
The following teams qualified for the 2023 African Games men's football tournament in Accra, Ghana.
| Team | Qualified on | data-sort-type="number" | Previous appearances in African Games1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Host nation | 7 (1973, 1978, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2019) | ||
| 25 February 2023 | 7 (1973, 1978, 1991, 1995, 2003, 2015, 2019) | ||
| 5 (1987, 2003, 2011, 2015, 2019) | |||
| 26 February 2023 | 4 (1965, 1973, 1995, 2015) | ||
| 0 (debut) | |||
| 4 (1965, 1991, 1999, 2011) | |||
| 27 February 2023 | 0 (debut) | ||
| 0 (debut) | |||
| 3 (1987, 1991, 2007) |
1 Bold indicates champions for that year. Italic indicates hosts for that year.