2026 COSAFA U-20 Youth Championship
International football competition
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The 2026 COSAFA U-20 Youth Championship which also served as the TotalEnergies CAF U-20 AFCON | COSAFA Qualifier, was the 31st edition of the COSAFA U-20 Youth Championship, the international youth football championship organised by COSAFA for the men's under-20 national teams of Southern Africa.
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country | Mozambique |
| Dates | 18–27 September |
| Teams | 12 (from 1 sub-confederation) |
| Venues | 2 (in 1 host city) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  South Africa (11th title) |
| Runners-up |  Mozambique |
| Third place |  Zambia |
| Fourth place |  Namibia |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 22 |
| Goals scored | 73 (3.32 per match) |
| Top scorer | Steven Mendes (6 goals) |
| Best player | Alírio Cuna |
| Best goalkeeper | Takalani Mazhamba |
| Fair play award | Namibia |
← 2025 2027 → | |
Initially scheduled to be held in Mauritius from 18 to 27 September 2026, the tournament was relocated to Mozambique weeks before the start, with the dates remaining unchanged.[1][2]
South Africa were the defending champions, having defeated Malawi 3–0 in the final of last year.[3] And they successfully retained their title, defeating hosts Mozambique 2–1 in the final to win their third consecutive title and 11th overall.[4]
Participation
A total of 12 of the 14 COSAFA member associations entered teams for the competition, with Comoros, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique and Seychelles returning to the tournament.[5]
Participating teams
Note: All appearance statistics are counted starting from the 1999 edition, as limited information is available for the earlier years.
| Team | App | Last | Previous best performance |
|---|---|---|---|
 Angola |
22nd | 2025 | Runners-up (2000, 2001, 2002) |
 Botswana |
22nd | 2025 | Third place (2009, 2013) |
 Comoros |
9th | 2024 | Group stage (2007, 2008, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024) |
 Eswatini |
23rd | 2025 | Third place (1985, 1986, 1988, 1990) |
 Lesotho |
22nd | 2024 | Runners-up (1990, 2005, 2017) |
 Malawi |
20th | 2025 | Runners-up (2003, 2025) |
 Mauritius |
18th | 2022 | Group stage (Eighteen times) |
| Mozambique |
22nd | 2024 | Champions (2020) |
| Namibia |
20th | 2025 | Runners-up (2010, 2020) |
 Seychelles |
13th | 2022 | Group stage (Thirteen times) |
| South Africa |
23rd | 2025 | Champions (2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2018, 2024, 2025) |
| Zambia |
23rd | 2025 | Champions (1983, 1986, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2019, 2022) |
- Did not enter
Madagascar
Zimbabwe – ZIFA decided not to enter the tournament in order to focus on reorganising its youth football structures and establishing a more structured scouting and player-development system. And stated that it wanted to ensure its youth national teams had adequate preparation, a properly identified player pool and a clear technical programme before returning to international competition.[6][7]
Venues
Match officials
- Referees
Keabetswe Dintwa
Sanele Ntimane- Lominson Todihajaniaina
- Arnaud Zafimahatoha
David Chinoko- Eness Gumbo
Celso Alvação
Mweshitsama Negongo
Akhona Makalima- Eugine Mdluli
Charles Ng'andwe
- Assistant referees
- Leungo Tsogang
Soulaimane Amaldine- Romuald Ibenantenaina
Louis Cauvelet- Zacarias Baloi
- Inocêncio Lourenço
- Olivia Amukuu
- Alex Lumponjani
- Kgara Mokoena
- Francis Swaba
- Polite Dube
Draw
The draw was held on 12 August 2026 at 13:00 CAT (UTC+2) in Johannesburg, South Africa.[8][9]
For the purposes of the draw, the teams were ranked according to their results in the previous three COSAFA U-20 Championships. Hosts Mauritius were automatically seeded in position A1, while the two highest-ranked teams, South Africa and Zambia, were seeded in positions B1 and C1, respectively. The remaining nine teams were divided into three pots of three teams each, with a separate set of three pots determining the group positions.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 |
|---|---|---|
The groups remained unchanged after Mauritius was replaced as host.
Group stage
Group A
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Namibia |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | +5 | 9 | Semi-finals |
| 2 | Mozambique |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 6 | |
| 3 | Seychelles |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 10 | −5 | 3 | |
| 4 | Mauritius |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 10 | −7 | 0 |
| Mozambique | 4–1 | Seychelles |
|---|---|---|
|
Report | Rajabary  5' |
| Mozambique | 0–1 | Namibia |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Naobeb 18' |
| Seychelles | 0–3 | Namibia |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
| Mozambique | 5–0 | Mauritius |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
Group B
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Africa |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | +7 | 9 | Semi-finals |
| 2 | Angola |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 6 | |
| 3 | Eswatini |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 8 | −5 | 3 | |
| 4 | Lesotho |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 11 | −9 | 0 |
| South Africa | 3–0 | Lesotho |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
| South Africa | 2–0 | Angola |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
| South Africa | 2–0 | Eswatini |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
Group C
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zambia |
3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | +7 | 9 | Semi-finals |
| 2 | Malawi |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 6 | |
| 3 | Comoros |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | −4 | 1 | |
| 4 | Botswana |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | −5 | 1 |
Ranking of second-placed teams
| Pos | Grp | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A | Mozambique |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 6[a] | Semi-finals |
| 2 | B | Angola |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 2 | +7 | 6[a] | |
| 3 | C | Malawi |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 6 |
- Tied on points, goal differential and goals scored. Fair Play points were used as tiebreaker.
Knockout stage
Bracket
| Semi-finals | Final | |||||
| 25 September | ||||||
| South Africa | 4 | |||||
| 27 September | ||||||
| Zambia | 2 | |||||
| South Africa | 2 | |||||
| 25 September | ||||||
| Mozambique | 1 | |||||
| Namibia | 0 | |||||
| Mozambique | 3 | |||||
| Third place | ||||||
| 27 September | ||||||
| Zambia | 3 | |||||
| Namibia | 0 | |||||
Semi-finals
| Namibia | 0–3 | Mozambique |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
Third place
Final
| South Africa | 2–1 | Mozambique |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
|
Goalscorers
There were 73 goals scored in 22 matches, for an average of 3.32 goals per match.
6 goals
- Steven Mendes
5 goals
- Alírio Cuna
3 goals
Luisinho
Lorenzo Hoareau
2 goals
- Romano Domingos
- Jairo Muanha
- Njabulo Gama
- Quentin Lalsing
- Martinho Começar
- Lukas Sakeus
- Rashid Naobeb
- Oarabile Booysen
- Billy Daka
- Sipho Muntanga
- Daniel Silubonde
1 goal
- Domingos Muxito
- Kulica
- Kent Murandu
- Ziyad Moussa
- Andiswa Malaza
Lekanyane Kalache- Kabelo Tuoane
- Misheck Billiat
- Grant Chibalo
- Clever Kalambo
- Austin Yasini
- Jean Ravina
- Faizal Abdala
- Khensane Machel
- Fanuel Macuácua
- Diego Pelembe
- Rizan Romão
- Hissen Sócrate
- Mateus Ashitenda
- Naythan Barbe
- Eriano Rajabary
- Lazola Maku
- Manelisi Mazibuko
- Tebogo Mlangeni
- Milimo Nalumango
- Emile Witbooi
- Kayula Chinunda
- John Foloko
- Jonathan Kalimina
- Gift Mumbi
- Tumalo Mununga
- Duncan Musialela
- Abel Nyirongo
1 own goal
- Fayyad Issilamou-Hamza (against Malawi)
See also
- 2026 COSAFA Under-17 Championship