With the growing popularity of football across South America in the early 1900’s a league tournament was arranged to celebrate the centennial independence of Argentina in 1916 with Chile, Brazil, Uruguay and the hosts participating in what was named the Campeonato Sudamericano de Football. Following the success of the competition CONMEBOL was then founded and the following year Uruguay would host the competition and thus began a regular occurrence of the oldest surviving international football tournament in the world. Since 1975 the competition re-branded officially as the Copa America under various formats with as many as sixteen countries often including guest nations from confederations outside of South America.
Campeonato Sudamericano Winners
1916 Uruguay *won on league basis
1917 Uruguay *won on league basis
1919 Brazil 1-0 Uruguay (Rio de Janeiro) aet playoff after league stage tied
1920 Uruguay *won on league basis
1921 Argentina *won on league basis
1922 Brazil 3-0 Paraguay (Rio de Janeiro) playoff after league stage tied
1923 Uruguay *won on league basis
1924 Uruguay *won on league basis
1925 Argentina *won on league basis
1926 Uruguay *won on league basis
1927 Argentina *won on league basis
1929 Argentina *won on league basis
1935 Uruguay *won on league basis
1937 Argentina *won on league basis
1939 Peru *won on league basis
1941 Argentina *won on league basis
1942 Uruguay *won on league basis
1945 Argentina *won on league basis
1946 Argentina *won on league basis
1947 Argentina *won on league basis
1949 Brazil 7-0 Paraguay (Rio de Janeiro) playoff after league staged tied
1953 Paraguay 3-2 Brazil (Lima) playoff after league stage tied
1955 Argentina *won on league basis
1956 Uruguay *won on league basis
1957 Argentina *won on league basis
1959 Argentina *won on league basis
1959 Uruguay *won on league basis
1963 Bolivia *won on league basis
1965 Uruguay *won on league basis
Copa America Finals
1975 Peru 1-0 Colombia (Caracas) playoff after 0-1 (Bogota) & 2-0 (Lima)
1979 Paraguay 0-0 Chile (Buenos Aires) 3-1 on pens aet & playoff after 3-0 (Asuncion) & 0-1 (Santiago)
1983 Uruguay 2-0 Brazil (Montevideo) 1-1 (Salvador) 2-1 over 2 legs
1987 Uruguay 1-0 Chile (Buenos Aires)
1989 Brazil *won on league basis
1991 Argentina *won on league basis
1993 Argentina 2-1 Mexico (Guayaquil)
1995 Uruguay 1-1 Brazil (Montevideo) 5-3 on pens aet
1997 Brazil 3-1 Bolivia (La Paz)
1999 Brazil 3-0 Uruguay (Asuncion)
2001 Colombia 1-0 Mexico (Bogota)
2004 Brazil 2-2 Argentina (Lima) 4-2 on pens aet
2007 Brazil 3-0 Argentina (Maracaibo)
2011 Uruguay 3-0 Paraguay (Buenos Aires)
2015 Chile 0-0 Argentina (Santiago) 4-1 on pens aet
2016 Chile 0-0 Argentina (New Jersey) 4-2 on pens aet
2019 Brazil 3-1 Peru (Rio de Janeiro)
2021 Argentina 1-0 Brazil (Rio de Janeiro)
Most wins: 15 Argentina, 15 Uruguay, 9 Brazil, 2 Chile, 2 Paraguay, 1 Bolivia, 1 Colombia.