Eight great footballers who won Olympic medals, including Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola

While it may not traditionally be on every footballer's bucket list, some of the world's best players have won an Olympic medal. Football is not considered a conventional Olympic event, but it has been a part of the Games for over a century, making it the oldest and longest-running international competition in the sport.

Over time, many football stars have been attracted to the Olympics, but since 1992, an age limit has been in place, limiting teams to players under the age of 23. In 1996, the rules were slightly changed to allow up to three players over the age of 23 on each team, giving countries the opportunity to showcase their best talent.

With that in mind, The Express The list includes eight big names who have won medals at the Olympic Games.

Messi, Aguero and Di Maria

The 2021 Copa America is often considered Lionel Messi's first triumph at a major international competition, but that is perhaps a common misconception. The diminutive Argentinian led his country to glory at the 2008 Beijing Olympics alongside future Manchester City goalscorer Sergio Aguero and future Real Madrid star Angel Di Maria.

Messi, voted the tournament's best player, scored twice in Argentina's victory over Nigeria in the final. He almost didn't make it. Barcelona had initially prevented him from attending due to a conflict with Champions League qualifying that summer. However, new Barca coach Pep Guardiola persuaded the club to allow their star player to travel to China. And speaking of Guardiola…

Pep Guardiola

Guardiola's support for Messi is unsurprising given his own Olympic achievements. The Manchester City manager was part of the Spain team that won gold in 1992, beating Poland in the final.

He played in central midfield alongside Luis Enrique, future coach of FC Barcelona, ​​Spain and PSG, who was then at Real Madrid. Four years later, Enrique joined Barça, renewing his Olympic partnership with Pep.

Samuel Eto'o

African nations have traditionally struggled to qualify for the World Cup finals, but that is not the case at the Olympics. Teams from the continent have reached the final three times, including Samuel Eto'o's Cameroon, who won gold in 2000.

Eto'o had just moved to Mallorca from Real Madrid and was a few years away from becoming the goalscorer who would one day become the defending champions. En route to the final, Cameroon knocked out a Brazil side that featured Ronaldinho, Eto'o's future Barcelona teammate, before beating Spain in the final, where Eto'o scored his only goal of the campaign.

Xavi and Puyol

Two other future teammates of Eto'o at Barcelona, ​​Xavi and Carles Puyol, lost that day to Cameroon. The two youngsters were masters of the tournament, but could not impose themselves and had to settle for the silver medal. And that was despite a quarter-final victory against a formidable Italian team featuring Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso and Gianluca Zambrotta.

Neymar

Neymar led Brazil to victory at the Rio Olympics in 2016, just two years after Brazil's 7-1 defeat to Germany at the World Cup on home soil. Playing alongside PSG defender Marquinhos and youngster Gabriel Jesus, Neymar scored four goals, including one in the final and two in the semi-finals, to secure the gold medal for Brazil.

At the time, Neymar was 24 and had just won his second consecutive La Liga title with Barcelona, ​​having helped the club achieve a historic treble with Messi and Luis Suarez the previous year.

The Spanish team to win Euro 2024

Finally, it is worth noting that seven members of the Spanish team that won the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago won the European Championship this summer. Interestingly, both teams were led by the same coach, Luis de la Fuente.

Unai Simon, Marc Cucurella, Martin Zubimendi, Pedri, Mikel Merino, Mikel Oyarzabal and Dani Olmo – all but one of whom featured in Spain's 2-1 win over England in Berlin earlier this month – were in the starting XI for Spain's extra-time defeat to Brazil in the 2021 Olympics final.