U-23 Africa Cup of Nations

The U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, known for sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, or simply U-23 AFCON or U-23 CAN, is the quadrennial African football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for its nations, consisting of players under 23 years of age, and was first held in 2011. It has been held every four years since its Inauguration. The top three nations qualify directly from every edition of this tournament for the football tournament of the Olympic Games.

U-23 Africa Cup of Nations

Organising body	CAF
Founded	2011; 14 years ago (2011)
Region	Africa
Number of teams	8
Current champions	Morocco (1st title)
Most successful team(s)	Egypt  Gabon  Morocco  Nigeria (1 title each)
Website	Official website
2023 U-23 Africa Cup of Nations

Egypt, Gabon, Morocco and Nigeria are the most successful teams in this tournament with each winning a single title. Morocco and Egypt are the only country to have played the final twice. Morocco are the tournament's current champions, having beaten Egypt 2-1 in the 2023 final.

History

Beginning in 1956, the year before the foundation of CAF, there has been qualification tournaments for the Olympic Games football tournament for African teams, but they were on a home-and-away basis. In 2011, CAF formed a full-time standalone qualification tournament to align with the upgrades to its U-20 and U-17 competitions and named it the African U-23 Championship. On 6 August 2015, the CAF Executive Committee decided to change the tournament's name to the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, similar to the senior's version, Africa Cup of Nations.^[1] However the name on the tournament logo for the forthcoming 2015 edition would read as the U-23 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.^[2][3]

Egypt hosted the 2019 tournament, and was won by them, making Egypt the first host nation to win the title in home country.^[4]

The 2023 tournament was hosted by Morocco, making it the second time the country has hosted this tournament.^[5] The tournament started on 24 June and ended on 8 July. The Final between Egypt and Morocco was held at Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat.^[6] Morocco defeated Egypt 2–1, to win their first ever title.^[7]

Results

Coincidently, every final has had the same scoreline.

Year	Host		Final				Third place match
			Winner	Score	Runners-up		Third place	Score	Fourth place
2011	Morocco[8]		Gabon	2–1	Morocco		Egypt	2–0	Senegal
2015	Senegal[9]		Nigeria	2–1	Algeria		South Africa	0–0 (3–1 p)	Senegal
2019	Egypt[10]		Egypt	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Ivory Coast		South Africa	2–2 (6–5 p)	Ghana
2023	Morocco[11]		Morocco	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Egypt		Mali	0–0 (4–3 p)	Guinea

Successful national teams

Team	Champions	Runners-up	Third-place	Fourth-place
Egypt	1 (2019*)	1 (2023)	1 (2011)	–
Morocco	1 (2023*)	1 (2011*)	–	–
Gabon	1 (2011)	–	–	–
Nigeria	1 (2015)	–	–	–
Algeria	–	1 (2015)	–	–
Ivory Coast	–	1 (2019)	–	–
South Africa	–	–	2 (2015, 2019)	–
Mali	–	–	1 (2023)	–
Senegal	–	–	–	2 (2011, 2015*)
Ghana	–	–	–	1 (2019)
Guinea	–	–	–	1 (2023)

*= Hosts

Participating nations

Team	2011 (8)	2015 (8)	2019 (8)	2023 (8)	Years
Algeria	GS	2nd	•	•	2
Cameroon	•	•	GS	•	1
Congo	•	•	•	GS	1
Egypt	3rd	GS	1st	2nd	4
Gabon	1st	•	•	GS	2
Ghana	•	•	4th	GS	2
Guinea	•	×	•	4th	1
Ivory Coast	GS	•	2nd	•	2
Mali	•	GS	GS	3rd	3
Morocco	2nd	•	•	1st	2
Niger	×	×	•	GS	1
Nigeria	GS	1st	GS	•	3
Senegal	4th	4th	•	•	2
South Africa	GS	3rd	3rd	•	3
Tunisia	•	GS	•	•	1
Zambia	•	GS	GS	•	2

Legend

1st – Champions 2nd – Runners-up 3rd – Third place 4th – Fourth place GS – Group stage Q – Qualified

— Hosts  ×  – Did not enter  •  – Did not qualify  ×  – Withdrew before qualification     — Withdrew after qualification     — Disqualified after qualification

Results at the Olympics (2012–present)

Nation	12	16	20	24	Years
Algeria	–	14	–	–	1
Egypt	8	–	8	4	3
Gabon	12	–	–	–	1
Guinea	–	–	–	16	1
Ivory Coast	–	–	7	–	1
Mali	–	–	–	14	1
Morocco	11	–	–	3	2
Nigeria	–	3	–	–	1
Senegal	6	–	–	–	1
South Africa	–	13	16	–	2

Awards

Player of the Tournament

Originally called the "Most Valuable Player (MVP)" until the 2019 edition.

Year	Golden Player
2015	Azubuike Okechukwu[12]
2019	Ramadan Sobhi[13]
2023	Ibrahim Adel[14]

Goalkeeper of the Tournament

Year	Best Goalkeeper
2015	Abdelkader Salhi[15]
2019	Mohamed Sobhy[16]
2023	Hamza Alaa[17]

Top goalscorer

This is awarded to the player(s) who score the most goals during each edition of the tournament.

Edition	Top goalscorer	Goals
Morocco 2011	Abdelaziz Barrada Raheem Lawal	3
Senegal 2015	Etebo Oghenekaro	5
Egypt 2019	Mostafa Mohamed	4
Morocco 2023	Abde Ezzalzouli Yanis Begraoui Emmanuel Yeboah	3

See also

• Africa Cup of Nations
• U-20 Africa Cup of Nations
• U-17 Africa Cup of Nations
• Football at the African Games
• Football at the Summer Olympics