2017 U-20 Africa Cup of Nations

The 2017 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations, officially known as the Total U-20 Africa Cup Of Nations, Zambia 2017, was the 14th edition of the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations (21st edition if tournaments without hosts are included), the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for players aged 20 and below. The tournament was set to take place in Zambia between 26 February – 12 March 2017.

The top four teams qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea.

Qualification
The qualifiers were played between 1 April and 24 July 2016. At the end of the qualification phase, seven teams joined the hosts Zambia.

Player eligibility
Players born 1 January 1997 or later are eligible to participate in the competition.

Qualified teams
The following eight teams qualified for the final tournament. Defending champions Nigeria failed to qualify. Congo and Ghana also failed to qualify, thus the winners of five of the last six tournaments failed to qualify for this tournament.

Note: All appearance statistics count only those since the introduction of final tournament in 1991.

Match officials
A total of 12 referees and 14 assistant referees were selected for the tournament.


 * Referees


 * Hélder Martins de Carvalho (Angola)
 * 🇧🇫 Juste Ephrem Zio (Burkina Faso)
 * 🇧🇮 Thierry Nkurunziza (Burundi)
 * 🇨🇲 Antoine Effa (Cameroon)
 * Victor Gomes (South Africa)
 * 🇪🇬 Ibrahim Nour El Din (Egypt)
 * Sékou Ahmed Touré (Guinea)
 * 🇹🇳 Sadok Selmi (Tunisia)
 * 🇳🇦 Jackson Pavaza (Namibia)
 * 🇷🇼 Louis Hakizimana (Rwanda)
 * Joshua Bondo (Botswana)
 * Chewe Wisdom (Zambia)


 * Assistant referees


 * Mokrani Gourari (Algeria)
 * Issa Yahya (Chad)
 * Steven Danilek M. Moyo (Congo)
 * Sosseh Sulayman (Gambia)
 * Sidiki Sidibe (Guinea)
 * 🇰🇪 Cheruiyot Gilbert (Kenya)
 * 🇺🇬 Mark Ssonko (Uganda)
 * Warr Adbelrahman (Mauritania)
 * 🇨🇩 Nabina Blaise Sebutu (DR Congo)
 * 🇸🇳 Toure Sengne Cheikh (Senegal)
 * Eldrick Adelaide (Seychelles)
 * Khumalo Steven (South Africa)
 * 🇲🇱 Diakite Moriba (Mali)
 * Kasengele Romeo (Zambia)

Draw
The draw for the tournament took place on 24 October 2016, 11:00 local time (UTC+2) at the CAF Headquarters in Cairo.

The teams were seeded based on the results of the last edition (final tournament and qualifiers).

Squads
Each squad can contain a maximum of 21 players.

Group stage
The group winners and runners-up advance to the semi-finals and qualify for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.

The teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If tied on points, tiebreakers are applied in the following order:
 * Tiebreakers
 * 1) Number of points obtained in games between the teams concerned;
 * 2) Goal difference in games between the teams concerned;
 * 3) Goals scored in games between the teams concerned;
 * If, after applying criteria 1 to 3 to several teams, two teams still have an equal ranking, criteria 1 to 3 are reapplied exclusively to the matches between the two teams in question to determine their final rankings. If this procedure does not lead to a decision, criteria 5 to 7 apply;
 * 1) Goal difference in all games;
 * 2) Goals scored in all games;
 * 3) Drawing of lots.

All times are local, CAT (UTC+2).

Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, if a match is level at the end of normal playing time, extra time will be played (two periods of 15 minutes each) and followed, if necessary, by kicks from the penalty mark to determine the winner, except for the third place match where no extra time will be played.

Individual awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament.
 * Total Man of the Competition
 * Patson Daka


 * Top scorer
 * Luther Singh (4 goals, 2 assists)


 * Fair Play Award

CAF Best XI

 * Goalkeeper: Mangani Banda (Zambia)
 * Defenders: Ousseynou Diagne (Senegal), Mamadou Mbaye (Senegal), Solomon Sakala (Zambia)
 * Midfielders: Krepin Diatta (Senegal), Ibrahima Niane (Senegal), Sylla Morlaye (Guinea), Edward Chilufya (Zambia), Fashion Sakala (Zambia)
 * Forwards: Luther Singh (South Africa), Patson Daka (Zambia)
 * Substitutes: Lamine Sarr (Senegal), Prosper Chiluya (Zambia), Enock Mwepu (Zambia), Grant Margeman (South Africa), Liam Jordan (South Africa), Yamodou Toure (Guinea), Mohamed Aly Camara (Guinea)

Goalscorers

 * 4 goals


 * Luther Singh
 * Edward Chilufya
 * Patson Daka


 * 3 goals


 * Fashion Sakala


 * 2 goals


 * 🇨🇲 Eric Ayuk
 * Morlaye Sylla
 * 🇸🇳 Ousseynou Diagne
 * 🇸🇳 Krépin Diatta
 * 🇸🇳 Ibrahima Niane
 * Liam Jordan


 * 1 goal


 * 🇨🇲 Samuel Gouet
 * 🇨🇲 Kalvin Ketu
 * 🇨🇲 Olivier Mbaizo
 * 🇪🇬 Mostafa Abdalla
 * 🇪🇬 Karim Nedved
 * Mohamed Aly Camara
 * Naby Bangoura
 * Yamodou Touré
 * 🇲🇱 Abdoul Karim Danté
 * 🇲🇱 Moussa Diakité
 * 🇲🇱 Sékou Koïta
 * 🇸🇳 Aliou Badji
 * 🇸🇳 Ibrahima Ndiaye
 * Phakamani Mahlambi
 * Tercious Malepe
 * Grant Margeman
 * Sibongakonke Mbatha
 * 🇸🇩 Walaa Mohamed
 * 🇸🇩 Hassan Mutwakil
 * 🇸🇩 Khaled Osman
 * Emmanuel Banda
 * Enock Mwepu


 * Own goal
 * Katlego Mohamme (against Guinea)

Qualified teams for FIFA U-20 World Cup
The following four teams from CAF qualified for the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup.


 * 1 Bold indicates champion for that year. Italic indicates host for that year.