Football has been a key sport at the Olympics for many years, with both the men’s and women’s tournaments attracting high attendances at the stadium and strong viewership figures around the world.
However, whilst the women’s event sees countries send their best players in what is considered one of the most prestigious tournaments in the women’s football calendar, the men’s competition at the Olympics is a little bit different.
Men’s soccer at the Games is mostly an Under-23 event, with youth prospects given a chance to shine on the global stage, although teams are allowed to bring a certain amount of overage players into their side.
The Sporting News analyses the selection rules for the men’s tournament, and which overage players will be representing their country at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
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What are the men’s eligibility rules for Olympic football?
For men’s football at the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rules state only players under the age of 23 can be selected, with the exception of a maximum of three over-23 players permitted in each squads.
This means for the Paris Olympics, 15 of the players in final squads must be born on or after January 1, 2001.
When the rule was first introduced in 1984, players who had appeared at the World Cup were not allowed to play, though it was relaxed slightly in 1992 to allow those who had played less than 90 minutes at a World Cup to compete.
Why are the eligibility rules for men’s and women’s Olympic football different?
When the men’s tournament first allowed professional players in 1984, FIFA was concerned this would allow the Olympics to rival and eventually overtake the World Cup in significance.
As a result, a compromise was reached that forced European and South American sides — football’s strongholds — to send those who had not played in a World Cup before, whilst allowing all other nations to field any players.
In addition, as the Olympics is outside a FIFA-sanctioned international window, clubs are not compelled to release players to be available for their national side, meaning many of the top stars of world football do not play at the Olympics.
Which overage players will be playing at 2024 Paris Olympics?
Most of the 16 nations participating at this year’s Olympics have taken the maximum of three overage players allowed by IOC rules.
Whilst the eligibility criteria make it difficult to get star players to participate, there will still be some top talent at the Games.
Julian Alvarez will be Argentina’s key man as he plays in the tournament just after winning the Copa America with Argentina, with teammate Nicolas Otamendi joining him in Paris, whilst Alex Baena and Fermin Lopez were part of the Spain side that won the recent European Championship.
Achraf Hakimi will be captaining Morocco, whilst the USA have selected Walker Zimmerman, Miles Robinson and Djordje Mihailovic as their overage players in Group A.
List of overage players at Paris Olympics
| Country | Overage players |
|---|---|
| France | Loic Bade (Sevilla) Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon) Jean Philippe Mateta (Crystal Palace) |
| Guinea | Amadou Diawara (Anderlecht) Naby Keita (Werder Bremen) Abdoulaye Toure (Le Harve) |
| New Zealand | Michael Boxhall (Minnesota United) Joe Bell (Viking) Sarpreet Singh (Free agent) |
| United States | Walker Zimmerman (Nashville SC) Miles Robinson (FC Cincinnati) Djordje Mihailovic (Colorado Rapids |
| Argentina | Geronimo Rulli (Ajax) Julian Alvarez (Manchester City) Nicolas Otamendi (Benfica) |
| Iraq | Saad Natiq (Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya) Ibrahim Bayesh (Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya) Aymen Hussein (Al-Quwa Al-Jawiya) |
| Morocco | Munir Mohamedi (Al-Wehda) Achraf Hakimi (Paris Saint-Germain) Soufiane Rahimi (Al-Ain) |
| Ukraine | Maksym Talovyerov (LASK Linz) Dmytro Kryskiv (Shakhtar Donetsk) |
| Dominican Republic | Junior Firpo (Leeds United) Luiyi de Lucas (AEL Limassol) Heinz Morschel (Ujpest) |
| Egypt | Ahmed Sayed (Zamalek) Mohamed Elneny (Free agent) |
| Spain | Juan Miranda (Real Betis) Abel Ruiz (Braga) Sergio Gomez (Manchester City) |
| Uzbekistan | Husniddin Aliqulov (Caykur Rizespor) Oston Urunov (Persepolis) Eldor Shomurodov (Cagliari) |
| Israel | Sean Goldberg (Maccabi Haifa) Omri Gandelman (Gent) |
| Japan | N/A |
| Mali | Salam Jiddou (ES Setif) Demba Diallo (Manisa) |
| Paraguay | Gatito Fernandez (Botafogo) Fabian Balbuena (Dynamo Moscow) |
Who won men’s football tournament at 2020 Olympics?
Brazil won the men’s football tournament at the last Olympics in Tokyo, as they defeated Spain 2-1 in the gold medal match.
Goals from Matheus Cunha and Malcom helped Brazil to their win after extra-time, though they will not be around to defend their medal in Paris.
The bronze medal went to Mexico, who defeated host country Japan in the third-place match 3-1.
