10 players you had no idea played at the Olympic Games: Ronaldo, Pirlo, Salah…
The Olympic Games holds a peculiar place in men’s football.
It’s the absolute pinnacle of achievement when it comes to athletics and many other sports, but can often be something of an afterthought – overshadowed by the World Cup and club game – when it comes to the beautiful game.
We’ve identified 10 big names that you (probably) never realised played at the Olympics.
Xavi
Arguably the greatest Spanish footballer of all time, Xavi made over a hundred appearances for La Roja and was a vital cog of the legendary side that bookended the 2010 World Cup with back-to-back European Championship triumphs.
A few months before he made his full international debut, Xavi represented Spain at the 2000 Olympics in Australia alongside fellow La Masia graduates Carles Puyol and Gabri.
He opened the scoring after just two minutes in the final, but had to settle for a silver medal after Samuel Eto’o inspired Cameroon to a two-goal comeback and victory on penalties.
Yakubu
Long before Premier League audiences came to know his name – and coin the classic Feed The Yak chant – Yakubu represented Nigeria at the 2000 Olympics while he was still a 17-year-old at Maccabi Haifa.
In their opening match, he scored an injury-time equaliser in a madcap 3-3 draw with Honduras, featured as they defeated hosts Australia and were eliminated by Chile at the quarter-final stage.
Andrea Pirlo
Two years after his Azzurri debut and two years before getting his hands on the World Cup, Pirlo captained Italy’s Olympic squad to a bronze medal in Athens.
That was actually his second Olympic Games, having featured as a youngster – against Yakubu’s Nigeria – in Sydney. Come 2004, he was one of the only two overage players in a squad that also featured a 19-year-old Giorgio Chiellini and a 21-year-old Daniele De Rossi.
Eventual gold medalists Argentina beat the Azzurri 3-0 in the semis, with Golden Boot winner Carlos Tevez opening the scoring, but they recovered to beat Iraq 1-0 in the bronze medal.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Winning Olympic gold long before his late-career golden era is a key chapter in Lionel Messi’s lore, but eternal rival Ronaldo’s Olympic story is largely forgotten.
Everyone remembers the teenage Ronaldo catching the eye at Euro 2004, crying when Portugal were defeated on home soil by outsiders Greece in the final.
They don’t remember the following month at the Olympics, in which Ronaldo’s Portugal finished bottom of a group that featured Iraq, Costa Rica and Morocco. He did at least score against Morocco in their solitary win.
READ: An astonishing XI of players at Euro 2024 born after Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal debut
Roy Makaay
A proper cult hero of the European club game, Makaay was an unforgettable frontman for the ‘Super’ Deportivo La Coruna side that won a La Liga title and the Copa del Rey.
He’d departed by the time that they reached the Champions League semi-finals, having signed for Bayern Munich after claiming the European Golden Shoe in 2002-03. Makaay then won two Bundesliga titles and DFB Pokals across his four years in Bavaria.
Less memorable was his late career swansong with Feyenoord, during which time he captained the Netherlands at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing as a 33-year-old.
He failed to score as the Dutch were eliminated at the quarter-final stage to Messi’s Argentina.
Freddy Adu
Talked up as America’s answer to Pele, it would be an understatement to say that Adu never quite delivered on the hype after famously making his MLS debut at the age of just 14.
The midfielder’s journeyman club career delivered very little of note, but he did play 17 times for his country between 2006 and 2011 and featured at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
The USA went home after the group stage, but they did take a respectable four points after beating Japan and drawing with the Netherlands.
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Vincent Kompany
To be fair, if you’re familiar with Kompany’s story, you might well recall Kompany featuring at the Olympics.
Participating alongside fellow Belgian ‘golden generation’ faces Thomas Vermaelen, Marouane Fellaini, Jan Verthonghen and Mousa Dembele at the 2008 Olympics caused an almighty falling out with his club Hamburg.
The German club stalled on authorising him to play and demanded he return to the club after receiving a red card (alongside Fellaini) in their opening 1-0 defeat to Brazil.
He didn’t immediately fly back, claimed he lost his passport, and described Hamburg chairman Bernd Hoffmann as “one of those people who know about money, but don’t know anything about football”
Just days later he was sold to Manchester City. The rest is history.
Mohamed Salah
Not long after leaving boyhood club Al Mokawloon Al Arab for Basel, a 20-year-old Salah featured for Egypt at the 2012 Olympics in the UK.
He scored against Brazil at the Millennium Stadium, against New Zealand at Old Trafford and against Belarus at Hampden Park. He then returned to Old Trafford as Egypt were defeated 3-0 by Japan in the quarters.
Salah wasn’t the only Premier League superstar who turned out at the London Olympics as a relatively unknown youngster back in 2012…
READ: 10 world-class stars you had no idea played at the 2012 Olympics: Neymar, Salah, Mane…
Son Heung-min
You might recall awkward questions over whether Tottenham would be forced to do without their star attacker for a lengthy period of time, because all South Korean men are required to complete mandatory 21-month military service by the age of 28.
Having helped his nation to win gold at the 2018 Asian Games, Son earned an exemption – though he did eventually complete three weeks of military service during lockdown.
Prior to that, that issue hung over South Korea’s participation at the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, with Son named as a designated overage player at the age of 24.
They topped their group, with the Spurs fan favourite scoring a penalty in an 8-0 mauling of Fiji, but suffered a surprise 1-0 defeat to Honduras in the quarters.
Alexis Mac Allister
The Liverpool midfielder has proven himself an important part of the Argentina side that won the World Cup in Qatar and the most recent Copa America.
But he hadn’t quite made it into the senior set-up when they kicked off their recent period of international dominance at the 2021 Copa America.
Instead, that summer he featured for Argentina at the year-delayed 2020 Olympics in Japan.
He went into the tournament off the back of a breakthrough season with Brighton, but things didn’t quite go to plan for the Albiceleste with a shock defeat to Australia and group-stage elimination.