The 2001 South American U-20 Championship (Sudamericana sub-20) was a football competition contested by all ten U-20 national football teams of CONMEBOL.

The three top competitors advance to a single final group of six, wherein each team plays five matches.

The top four teams in the final group qualify to the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship.

For a list of all the players in the final tournament, see 2001 South American U-20 Championship squads.

Excluding Argentina, who had qualified automatically as host, the four best performing teams qualified for the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship.