As the days tick down to the beginning of Euro 2024 and this summer’s Copa America, some preliminary squads are already being announced for next month’s Olympic men’s football tournament in Paris — but not without considerable difficulty.
“The last time I received so many rejections was at university,” said Thierry Henry, coach of France’s Olympic football team when asked about the selection process for his preliminary 25-man squad. The headline omission was Kylian Mbappe, Real Madrid’s newest superstar signing and the most famous French athlete on the planet, who had previously voiced his ambition to represent his country in his home city on the Olympic stage.
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But he is far from the only big name who will be absent. Chelsea have blocked Enzo Fernandez and Mykhailo Mudryk from representing Argentina and Ukraine, while other clubs are very likely to follow suit before the participating nations submit their final squads on July 3.
These particular tensions bubble up to varying degrees in the lead-up to every Olympic men’s football tournament, and it is worth exploring precisely why…
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The short answer is because they can. Since the Olympic Games occur outside an official window for international football, FIFA rules state clubs are not obliged to release players for the tournament. That is not the case for the European Championship or Copa America.
The longer answer is that clubs are looking out for their own interests, which are best served by not exposing some of their most valuable players to the additional workload of a non-mandatory competition. Concerns are particularly acute regarding Mbappe, Fernandez, Mudryk and other players set to represent their countries at Euro 2024 or the Copa America. Participation at the Olympics would commit them to playing throughout the summer with no significant rest time.
Barcelona star Pedri’s summer of 2021 is often cited as a cautionary tale. At the end of a brilliant breakthrough season at Camp Nou, he represented Spain at the delayed Euro 2020 and Olympic men’s football tournament, racking up 68 games for club and country across his first season as a top-flight player.
Hamstring injuries plagued his 2021-22 season. While there is no directly provable cause and effect, Pedri’s physical problems were widely interpreted within football as being in part a consequence of playing too many matches with too little opportunity for recovery.
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The timing of the Olympic football tournament does not help its chances of securing full player participation. Typically running from late July to early August (this summer’s edition starts on July 24 and ends on August 9), it directly clashes with clubs’ pre-season schedules, when players are expected to do the bulk of their physical conditioning work. Any rest period after the tournament also sidelines players for the start of their club campaigns.
Despite this, most clubs take a case-by-case approach when deciding whether or not to allow their players to participate in the Olympics, rather than a blanket policy of rejecting call-ups.
That depends on the player — in particular, how passionate they are about the prospect of competing for an Olympic medal.
In the vast majority of cases, players and clubs can get on the same page before call-ups are accepted or rejected, and it is rare for such situations to bubble up into public disputes. But some can require sensitive navigation, particularly when the player in question happens to be a hugely valuable superstar talent.
Lionel Messi was barred from playing for Argentina at the 2008 Olympics until Pep Guardiola, promoted to first-team coach at Barcelona, intervened to let him go and win gold in Beijing. Barca then struck a deal with the Brazilian Football Confederation in 2016 to keep Neymar out of that summer’s Copa America Centenario so he could spearhead Brazil’s successful tilt at Olympic glory in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Mbappe has spoken on numerous occasions about the appeal of potentially leading France to Olympic gold in Paris this summer, but his comments to French TV station France 2 in January suggest he will not make it a major bone of contention with new club Real Madrid. “Everyone knows I want to compete at the Games but if my club doesn’t want that to happen I’ll understand because I am mature enough to understand both views,” he said.
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Not everyone is of that mind. Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez, who is already representing Argentina at the Copa America, insisted this week that he is prepared to “fight” his club to be allowed to be in Javier Mascherano’s squad for the Olympic football tournament.
To answer that requires a brief history lesson. Football has been included in every summer Olympic Games as a men’s competition other than in 1896 and 1932, but professional players were not allowed to participate until the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.
By then, FIFA had well and truly established the World Cup as football’s greatest show on earth, and had no desire to allow the Olympic football tournament to grow into a serious rival. Initially, countries from UEFA and COMNEBOL were only allowed to select professional footballers who had never played in a World Cup.
In the 1990s, there was a shift towards the selection rules that persist to the present day: squads for the men’s tournament must consist of players under 23 years old, with up to three overage players. As a result, the men’s tournament continues to inhabit a strange space in the football world, not entirely without prestige or individual star power, but essentially a glorified youth competition.
There are no such age restrictions on the women’s Olympic football tournament, which is widely regarded as being second only to the Women’s World Cup in terms of importance.
There has been no shortage of star names since the age restrictions were introduced in 1992. Messi and Neymar headline a list of globally recognised players to have won Olympic gold that also includes Angel Di Maria, Carlos Tevez, Samuel Eto’o, Jay-Jay Okocha and Guardiola.
Among the other high-profile men’s players who had to content themselves with silver or bronze at previous Games are Thiago Silva, Ronaldinho, Andrea Pirlo, Xavi, Carles Puyol, Ivan Zamorano, Javier Zanetti, Ronaldo Nazario, Rivaldo and Roberto Carlos.
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As a fully-fledged senior international competition, the women’s Olympic football tournament has provided a global stage for most of the sport’s great names since its introduction in 1996. The list of those to have won a gold medal includes Christine Sinclair, Alexandra Popp, Carli Lloyd, Abby Wambach, Kristine Lilly, Hege Riise and Mia Hamm.
The closest comparison in an Olympic sense to football is basketball, where there are none of the same participation politics and no age restrictions on selection.
Ever since the United States ‘Dream Team’ marked the glorious introduction of NBA players to the Olympics in 1992, the men’s basketball tournament has featured a large proportion of players from the strongest league in the world. It is generally held in higher regard than the FIBA World Cup.
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The 12-player USA men’s basketball Olympic roster for Paris 2024 has an argument to be considered the strongest line-up since the Dream Team, featuring veteran superstars LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, former NBA MVP Joel Embiid and NBA finalist Jayson Tatum.
Also competing for the gold medal will be a Serbia team led by three-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic, a Canada team led by All-NBA First Team guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and a France team that boasts NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert and NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama.
In short, many of the best of the best will be in Paris with minimal concerns about how their participation will affect the 2024-25 NBA season, which begins in October.
Most participating nations are yet to announce their preliminary squads, but this is already shaping up to be the least star-studded Olympic men’s football tournament in recent memory.
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In the absence of Mbappe, the highest-profile names in France’s squad are Paris Saint-Germain duo Warren Zaire-Emery and Bradley Barcola — but both are also in Didier Deschamps’ 26-man selection for Euro 2024. Crystal Palace star Michael Olise’s availability for Olympic duty may be influenced by whether he is the subject of a lucrative transfer this summer.
Manchester City have given Julian Alvarez the green light to play in Paris despite the expectation that he will feature heavily for Argentina at the Copa America, but it would be a surprise if Messi were to make the same double commitment at 37.
Any attempt by Egypt to select Mohamed Salah will require the approval of Liverpool and their new coach, Arne Slot. Spain’s squad could be significantly depleted if Barcelona decide to avoid repeating the Pedri situation of 2021 with Lamine Yamal, Pau Cubarsi, Gavi and, yes, Pedri again.
A sprinkling of stardust could yet be added with several over-23 selections still to be announced, but this Olympic men’s football tournament is shaping up to be a competition that will need to unearth emerging talents.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
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Liam is a Staff Writer for The Athletic, covering Chelsea. He previously worked for Goal covering the Premier League before becoming the Chelsea correspondent for ESPN in 2015, witnessing the unravelling of Jose Mourinho, the rise and fall of Antonio Conte, the brilliance of Eden Hazard and the madness of Diego Costa. He has also contributed to The Independent and ITV Sport. Follow Liam on Twitter @liam_twomey
