Only a select few footballing superstars have etched their names into the history books by clinching an Olympic medal. Here, Mirror Football is running through eight of the best of them
Winning an Olympic medal might not be top of every footballer's to-do list, but an impressive array of the world's finest players have done so.
While being far from a traditional Olympic event, football has been part of the Games for over 120 years, making it the oldest and longest-running international competition in the sport's history.
Over the years, many of football's biggest names have been lured to the Olympiad, but since 1992 an age restriction has been in place, limiting teams to U23s players.
In 1996, the rules were altered slightly to allow a maximum of three players over the age of 23 in each squad, giving nations the chance to field their very best and brightest. With that in mind, Mirror Football is running through eight huge names who have won medals at the Olympics.
Messi scored twice and was named the best player at the tournament as Argentina clinched the gold with victory over Nigeria in the final, though he very nearly didn't take part. Barcelona initially barred him from participating as the Games clashed with their Champions League qualifiers that summer, only for newly-appointed Barca boss Pep Guardiola to twist the club's arm and allow their star man to travel to China.
Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero holding up their gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics Pep Guardiola Guardiola going to bat for Messi was little surprise given his own history at the Games. The Manchester City boss was part of the Spain side that won gold in 1992, beating Poland in the final.
He starred in central midfield alongside future Barcelona, Spain and PSG manager Luis Enrique, who was playing for Real Madrid at the time. Four years later, Enrique moved to Barca, thus rekindling his Olympic partnership with Guardiola.
Samuel Eto'o African nations have typically struggled to make their mark at the World Cup, but that isn't the case on the Olympic stage. Teams from the continent have reached the final three times, including Samuel Eto'o's Cameroon, who won gold in 2000.
At the time, Eto'o had just joined Mallorca after failing to make the grade at the Real Madrid. En route to the final, Cameroon knocked out a Brazil side featuring Eto'o's future Barcelona team-mate Ronaldinho, before beating Spain in the showpiece, in which Eto'o scored his only goal of the tournament.
Samuel Eto'o fired Cameroon to the gold medal at Sydney 2000 ( Image:
But they failed to get their country over the line and had to settle for silver medals, despite knocking out a stacked Italy side containing the likes of Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso and Gianluca Zambrotta in the quarters.
Neymar Two years after Brazil's nightmarish 7-1 defeat to Germany at the World Cup on home soil, Neymar fired his nation to glory at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Starring alongside PSG defender Marquinhos and a young Gabriel Jesus, Neymar scored four times, including one in the final and two in the semi-final, to help Brazil take home the gold.
It was little surprise really. Neymar was 24 at the time and had just won his second successive La Liga title at Barcelona, having powered the club to an historic Treble alongside Messi and Luis Suarez the year before.
Neymar (second from right) led Brazil to Olympic glory in 2016 Spain's Euro 2024-winning team As an honourable mention, it's worth noting that seven members of the Spain side that won silver at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago lifted the European Championship trophy this summer - and they were managed by the same coach (Luis de la Fuente) too!
Unai Simon, Marc Cucurella, Martin Zubimendi, Pedri, Mikel Merino, Mikel Oyarzabal and Dani Olmo - all but one of whom took part in Spain's 2-1 win over England in Berlin - started Spain's extra time defeat by Brazil in the Olympic final in 2021.