Julius OkorieConfederation of African Football (CAF) has awarded the hosting of the 2025 U-20 Nations Cup to Cote d’ Ivoire.
The announcement was made by the continental football governing body, during an executive committee meeting held in Marrakech, Morocco.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelIt had initially been speculated that the tournament will be held in South Africa. The tournament which kicks off in March will also serve as qualifying event for the FIFA U-20 World Cup billed for Chile next year.
The top four teams that reach the semi-finals will secure their spots in the World Cup, providing a significant opportunity for young African footballers to showcase their talents on a global stage.
Recall that Cote d’ Ivoire equally hosted the last AFCON emerging winners after defeating Nigeria narrowly in the finals. The 2025 Edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup will be the 24th edition.
In previous twenty-three editions of the tournament, twelve nations have won the title, with Argentina emerging as most successful team with six titles, followed by Brazil with five titles.
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Portugal U20 and Serbia U20 have both won two titles (with the latter winning once as Yugoslavia U20), while Ghana U20, Germany U20, Spain U20, France U20, England U20, Ukraine U20, Russia U20 (as the USSR U20) and Uruguay U20 have won the title once each.
Although Nigeria has won the U-20 AFCON a record seven times, the highest level the team has reached at the world cup is three time quarterfinal finishes in 2007 in Canada, 2011 in Colombia and in Argentina.
The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men’s national teams with players under the age of 20.
The tournament was first staged in 1977 with the maiden edition hosted by Tunisia under the tournament name of FIFA World Youth Championship until 2005. In 2007 the name was changed to its present form.
FIFA describes the men’s Under-20 World Cup as “the tournament of tomorrow’s superstars.” Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi and Paul Pogba are previous winners of the official player of the tournament award, and Erling Haaland was the top scorer at the 2019 edition.
Uruguay are reigning champions after beating Italy by a lone goal at the 2023 edition in Argentina. Nigeria crashed out in the quarterfinals of the last edition after losing by a lone goal to South Korea after extra time.
Julius Okorie is Chief Sports and Entertainment Correspondent for Prime Business Africa. He began his journalism career with the Champion Newspaper and Sporting Champion and later moved on to Daily Independent and the Nation Newspapers. Okorie joined Prime Business Africa in 2024 bringing on board 20 years of experience in writing investigative news on Sports and Entertainment. His well researched and highly informative articles on Sports Business and general entertainment are followed by a wide range of audience.
