The 2019 South American U-20 Championship was the 29th edition of the South American U-20 Championship (, ), the biennial international youth football championship organised by CONMEBOL for the men's under-20 national teams of South America. It was held in Chile between 17 January and 10 February 2019.
The top four teams qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland as the CONMEBOL representatives. The top three teams qualified for the 2019 Pan American Games men's football tournament, in addition to Peru who had automatically qualified as hosts. However, due to the re-introduction of the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament in 2020, the tournament was not used for qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics men's football tournament.
Ecuador won their first title. Argentina finished second, defending champions Uruguay finished third, while Colombia finished fourth.
All ten CONMEBOL member national teams entered the tournament.
According to ANFP sources, Chile was named as host country of the tournament during the CONMEBOL Executive Committee meeting held on 12 May 2015 at CONMEBOL headquarters in Luque, Paraguay. Estadio El Teniente in Rancagua, Estadio La Granja in Curicó and Estadio Fiscal in Talca were the venues chosen by CONMEBOL and ANFP.
Players born on or after 1 January 1999 were eligible to compete. Each team registered a squad of 23 players (three of whom must be goalkeepers).
The referees were:
The draw of the tournament was held on 6 November 2018, 14:15 CLST (), at the Teatro Municipal de Rancagua in Rancagua. The ten teams were drawn into two groups of five. The hosts Chile and the defending champions Uruguay were seeded into Group A and Group B respectively and assigned to position 1 in their group, while the remaining teams were placed into four "pairing pots" according to their results in the 2017 South American U-20 Championship (shown in brackets).
The top three teams in each group advanced to the final stage.
All times local, CLST ().
The best XI team was a squad consisting of the eleven most impressive players at the tournament.
The following four teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup.
The following four teams from CONMEBOL qualified for the 2019 Pan American Games men's football tournament, including Peru which qualified as hosts.
The tournament was broadcast by the following TV companies in South America.