Euro 2024 and the Copa América might both be done and dusted, but 2024’s grand summer of football continues as the Olympic Games get underway in Paris.
Once again, a FIFA-sanctioned football tournament will take place at the Games with both men’s and women’s competitions set to kick off this week — on Wednesday and Thursday respectively.
As per competition rules, the men’s tournament is predominantly restricted to under-23 players — though all countries taking part are allowed to include up to three designated overage players.
When it comes to the men’s tournament, gold medal holders Brazil have failed to qualify this time, though the likes of Argentina, France, Morocco and Spain have all seen fit to pepper their selections with a dusting of notable overage stars.
Meanwhile, Japan were the only country to decide to not include any players above the age of 23. Indeed, all 22 of the Samurai Blue’s Olympic players were born in 2001 or later.
We take a look at the older players to travel to France — in order of star quality. And we’ll also round up some of the biggest names to walk away with a gold medal from past Games.
Argentina
Julián Álvarez, Nicolás Otamendi, Gerónimo Rulli
Fresh from successfully lifting the Copa América for a 16th time, Argentina — coached at this tournament by former Liverpool and Barcelona star Javier Mascherano — have included three of the Albiceleste‘s victorious squad (their first match at the Olympics takes place just 10 days after the final of the Copa América) with striker Álvarez, defender Otamendi and goalkeeper Rulli.
At 36, Otamendi is the oldest player taking part in the men’s competition, with the veteran Benfica centre-back roughly one month older than his closest challenger, Paraguay keeper Gaitito Fernandez.
France
Alexandre Lacazette, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Loïc Badé
Head coach Thierry Henry has picked fellow Arsenal alumni Lacazette to lead the line for France at their home Olympics as Les Bleus seek to claim their first gold since the 1984 games, which was staged in the United States.
Such is the battle for places, Lacazette only won 16 caps for the France senior squad. Now 33, the Lyon player gets a real chance to make a mark for his country.
Lacazette will likely be joined up front by Crystal Palace striker Mateta, while Sevilla defender Badé was called into the squad this month as a late replacement for Maxime Estève, who withdrew through injury.
Spain
Sergio Gómez, Juan Miranda, Abel Ruiz
Buoyed by European Championship glory, Spain will be hoping to replicate that success at the Summer Olympics with head coach Santi Denia relying on Gomez (who moved from Manchester City to Real Sociedad earlier this month), Miranda (once of Barcelona and who has just joined Bologna) and team captain Ruiz (newly signed for Girona) as his trio of elders.
However, Ruiz is the oldest player in their squad at the age of 24 (and just nine days older than Miranda) so it’s not like La Roja are exactly overburdened with veteran experience.
Morocco
Achraf Hakimi, Munir El Kajoui, Soufiane Rahimi
The biggest name in Morocco’s Oylmpic squad is undoubtedly team captain Hakimi, with the 25-year-old full-back counting himself as a four-time league title winner with Internazionale and, more recently, Paris Saint-Germain.
Munir, meanwhile, was Morocco’s backup goalkeeper at the World Cup in Qatar and played the group stage game against Belgium.
Egypt name two players, with Arsenal midfielder Elneny selected as team captain. Their other overage player is Ahmed “Zizo” Sayed, the 28-year-old striker who plays for Zamalek in his home country.
Naby Keïta, Amadou Diawara, Abdoulaye Touré
Having qualified for the men’s Olympic tournament for the very first time, Guinea have drafted a full quote of overage players to ensure they are able to compete with their more established opponents.
Formerly of Liverpool, Keita has been bestowed with the captaincy and will be ably supported by Anderlecht midfielder Diawara and Toure, of Ligue 1 side Le Havre.
Walker Zimmerman, Miles Robinson, Djordje Mihailovic
After crashing out of the Copa América as hosts in the group stage, the U.S. will no doubt be looking to do much better at the Summer Olympics.
To that end, Marko Mitrovic’s young squad will be headed by captain Zimmerman of Nashville SC, along with FC Cincinnati centre-back Robinson and Colorado Rapids attacker Mihailovic, who all play regularly in MLS.
Zimmerman has 42 caps for the full USMNT team and played in all four of their games at the 2022 World Cup.
Junior Firpo, Luiyi de Lucas, Heinz Morschel
De Lucas, who has just left Scotland’s Livingston for Cypriot club AEL Limassol, is team captain and also the oldest member of the Dominican squad.
Firpo will be a name familiar to fans of Barcelona and Leeds United, with the 27-year-old left-back having spent the past four years at Elland Road after moving to England from Camp Nou.
Gatito Fernandez, Fabián Balbuena
The 36-year-old Fernández has played almost all his career in South America, but Balbuena will be very well known to fans of West Ham United having featuring in 54 Premier League games for the west London club.
Maksym Talovierov, Dmytro Kryskiv
Two players who only just go over the age limit with Kryskiv playing his whole career in Ukraine. Talovierov was part of the senior squad at Euro 2024 and has four full caps.
Michael Boxall, Joe Bell, Sarpreet Singh
Boxall has spent the last seven years in MLS with Minnesota United FC and, at the age of 35, is one of the most experienced players at the Olympics. He has 48 senior caps.
Attacker Singh, 25, played eight games for Bayern Munich in 2019-20 and is a free agent after leaving 2. Bundesliga club Hansa Rostock this month.
Defensive midfielder Bell, 25, plays in Norway for Viking and has 16 senior caps.
Saad Natiq, Aymen Hussein, Ibrahim Bayesh
Iraq have named three players with lots of senior experience, but who have not played in the major leagues.
Natiq has 41 caps, with Hussein on 76 and Bayesh 52.
Daniel Peretz, Sean Goldberg, Omri Gandelman
Peretz, 24, is on the books of Bayern Munich, and played two games last season after joining the club from Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Only two overage players have been named who haven’t played at a high-profile level.
Khusniddin Alikulov, Eldor Shomurodov, Oston Urunov
Uzbekistan have filled their quota, with AS Roma forward Shomurodov the best known player. The 29-year-old, who has 40 goals in 73 caps for the senior team, has also played for Genoa, Spezia and Cagliari.
Famous players who have won gold
While winning the Summer Olympic football tournament isn’t usually regarded as a “major” honour in footballing terms, there have been many famous names to have collected the gold medal.
The Argentina team that won gold at the 2008 games in Beijing contained an impressive list of prodigious young talent who all went onto big things — most notably Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Mascherano, Ever Banega, Ezeqiuel Lavezzi, Pablo Zabaleta and Ángel Di María.
Prior to that, the likes of Javier Saviola, Carlos Tevez, Fabricio Coloccini and Gabriel Heinze all won gold with Argentina at the 2004 games in Athens.
Neymar, Gabriel Jesus, Rafinha and Marquinhos all won gold with Brazil at the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro.
Further back, some of the biggest names in football have all taken gold at the Olympics with Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon, 2000), Nwankwo Kanu and Jay-Jay Okocha (Nigeria, 1996) plus Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique with Spain at the Barcelona games in 1992.
