5 world-class footballers we can’t believe never played at the Olympics
Men’s Olympic football is weird and beautiful and strange; it’s essentially an under-23 tournament with a sprinkling of world-class veterans.
It’s a place for some of the game’s bright young sparks to show what they can do and learn from the greats. Also, despite the Olympics’ lack of prestige compared to the World Cup, the chance to win an Olympic gold medal is something plenty of ballers take very seriously.
Some of football’s greatest ever players never made it to an Olympic Games. We’ve identified five legends we can’t believe never went to the Olympics.
Pele
The International Olympic Committee didn’t allow professional footballers to compete at the Olympics until the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, by which time Pele was 43 and retired.
Even then, nations from UEFA and CONMEBOL were only allowed to field players who hadn’t played in a World Cup, which Pele very much had. World Cups were kind of Pele’s thing.
It’s a shame, though, because Pele was widely regarded as the greatest of all time in 1984 (although there was a little stocky Argentinian bloke staking a pretty strong claim to that throne at the time).
And, although amateurism has always been an important part of the Olympic ethos, it feels wrong that Pele never got a shot at gold.
The IOC even named Pele the Athlete of the Century in 1999, which feels like a bit of a kick in the mangoes, to be honest.
Roque Santa Cruz
Shares his initials with the Royal Shakespeare Company, which is fitting, because they’ve both been around forever, and neither of them have played in the Olympics.
Roque does have 112 caps for Paraguay, however, whereas Ian McKellen has zero England caps as far as we can tell.
Santa Cruz did play at the preliminary qualifying tournament but Paraguay didn’t make it through—they beat Bolivia but there were only two qualifying spots in a group that also included Uruguay and Argentina… It’s tough out there in South America.
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt we’d have loved Roque Santa Cruz to play on the Olympic stage.
Clint Dempsey
The only Olympics that the USA men’s team qualified for in the Dempsey era was in 2008, by which time Dempsey would have been considered an overaged player. For reasons best known to themselves, the selectors went for Brad Guzan, Michael Parkhurst, and Brian McBride.
No offence to Michael Parkhurst, but surely you’re taking big Clint to the Olympics if he’s available. He’d just finished the season as Fulham’s Premier League top scorer. Let us remind you that Brian McBride also played for Fulham at this time.
Make it make sense!
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Kaka
The AC Milan legend won the World Cup, the Ballon d’Or, the Champions League, La Liga, Serie A… But he never played at the Olympics and also, surprisingly, never made it to the Copa America.
Nations can name up to three overaged (23 or over at the time of selection) players in their Olympic squad. In 2008, Brazil only took two overaged players to the Olympics—Ronaldinho and Thiago Silva. We’d have probably taken Kaka too because why not?
The Selecao lost 3-0 to Argentina in the semifinals. That’s what you get.
READ: 7 world-class players we can’t believe have never played at the Copa America
Andres Iniesta
Funnily enough, Iniesta’s wrestler namesake did compete at the Barcelona ’92 Olympics. He got absolutely dominated by the competitors from Turkey and Cuba respectively, and finished with zero points—a truly pathetic showing from the Men’s Freestyle 57kg Andres Iniesta.
The footballer—and inarguably sportingly superior—Iniesta never competed at the Olympic Games, which is surprising because he broke Barcelona at the age of 18, and was therefore a shoo-in for Spain’s Olympic squad, you’d have thought.
And he probably would have been, but Spain didn’t participate in the Olympic football tournament in either 2004 or 2008, and by 2012, Iniesta was busy winning the Euros and likely needed a little rest by the time the Olympics came around.