U-20 Africa Cup of Nations

The U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, known for short as the U-20 AFCON and for sponsorship purposes as TotalEnergies U-20 Africa Cup of Nations, previously known as the African Youth Championship and the African U-20 Championship, is the biennial international youth football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for its nations consisting of players under the age of 20. It serves as the African qualification tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

History
In 1979, FIFA created a world championship for upcoming footballers, causing CAF to install a home-and-away qualification tournament for African nations called the African Youth Championship which also crowned the tournament's champions. In 1991, CAF upgraded the tournament into a full-scale tournament contested by 8 in a chosen host nation.

CAF changed the name of this competition to the African U-20 Championship for the 2011 edition so as to distinguish it from the U-17 competition. On 6 August 2015, the CAF Executive Committee decided to change the tournament's name to the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations in line with the flagship Africa Cup of Nations tournament. However, the name on the official competition logo after 2015 reads as the U-20 Africa Cup of Nations.

On 21 July 2016, French energy and petroleum giant TotalEnergies (formerly Total S.A.) secured an 8-year sponsorship package from CAF to support its competitions.

Since the 2021 edition, the tournament has been contested by 12 teams.

Performance by nation
* = As hosts

Participating nations

 * Legend


 * – Champions
 * – Runners-up
 * – Third place
 * – Fourth place
 * – Semi-finals
 * QF – Quarter-finals
 * GS – Group stage
 * PR – Preliminary round
 * 1R – First round
 * 2R – Second round
 * q – Qualified
 * &mdash; Hosts
 * × – Did not enter
 * • – Did not qualify
 * × – Withdrew before qualification
 * &mdash; Withdrew after qualification
 * &mdash; Disqualified after qualification

Participating nations by year of debut
Participating nations by Debut (Until 1989, counted Round 1, after 1991 counting Final 16)

Before 1989

 * 1979:, , , , , , , , , ,
 * 1981:, , , ,
 * 1983:, , , , ,
 * 1985: ,
 * 1987:
 * 1989:, ,

After 1991

 * 1991:, , , , (hosts),
 * 1993:, (hosts), ,
 * 1995:, ,
 * 1997: ,
 * 1999: ,
 * 2003: ,
 * 2005:, (hosts)
 * 2007:, (hosts)
 * 2009: (hosts)
 * 2011: No new team
 * 2013: ,
 * 2015: No new team
 * 2017: No new team
 * 2019: (hosts)
 * 2021:, (hosts), , , , ,
 * 2023:

FIFA U-20 World Cup performances

 * Legend


 * 1st – Champions
 * 2nd – Runners-up
 * 3rd – Third place
 * 4th – Fourth place


 * QF – Quarterfinals
 * R2 – Round 2
 * R1 – Round 1
 * – Hosts
 * q – Qualified for upcoming edition