The 1997 South American Under-17 Football Championship was played in Paraguay from 28 February to 16 March 1997.

The host of the competition were the cities of Asunción, Pedro Juan Caballero and Encarnación.

Sandro Hiroshi was banned for 180 days in 1999 when it was discovered that his age had been falsified in the 1997 tournament.^[1] Brazil did not face team sanctions as the federation argued that Hiroshi acted without its authorization.

First round

The 10 national teams were divided in 2 groups of 5 teams each. The top 2 teams qualified for the final round.

Group A

Team	Pts	M	W	D	L	GF	GC
Argentina	9	4	3	0	1	11	4
Paraguay	9	4	3	0	1	7	2
Venezuela	6	4	2	0	2	3	9
Ecuador	4	4	1	1	2	6	8
Peru	1	4	0	1	3	2	6

Group B

Team	Pts	M	W	D	L	GF	GC
Brazil	8	4	2	2	0	8	3
Chile	7	4	2	1	1	9	3
Colombia	7	4	2	1	1	5	2
Uruguay	6	4	2	0	2	4	4
Bolivia	0	4	0	0	4	1	15

Final round

The final round were played in the same system that first round, with the best 4 teams.

Team	Pts	PJ	PG	PE	PP	GF	GC
Brazil	9	3	3	0	0	12	4
Argentina	4	3	1	1	1	4	2
Chile	3	3	1	0	2	5	9
Paraguay	1	3	0	1	2	1	7

• Brazil, Argentina and Chile qualify to FIFA U-17 World Cup, Egypt '97

1997 South American Under-17 Football champions
Brazil 4th title

Top goalscorers

Team	Players	Goals
	Geovanni	4
	Milovan Mirosevic	4
	Juan Viveros	4

Ideal Team of the Tournament

Team	Players	Position
	Franco Costanzo	GK
	Janiro	DF
	Paulo da Silva	DF
	Gabriel Milito	DF
	Jorginho	DF
	Ferrugem	MD
	Tacio	MD
	Ronaldinho	MD
	Milovan Mirosevic	MD
	Juan Viveros	FW
	Luciano Galletti	FW