Players of interest at the Olympics...

The Olympic football starts on Wednesday. Much debate on the merit of having football at the Olympics, but it is still an arena for young stars to shine. The squads are u23, but 4 overage players are allowed.

Arguably the most talked about youngster here will be France star Desire Doue. The 19 year old Rennes midfielder has been linked to us, but stronger links to PSG, Bayern and even Spurs have been mentioned as potential suitors.
The French team is coached by Thierry Henry and captained by Alexandre Lacazette. Jean-Philippe Mateta and Michael Olise ended last season on fire for Palace, although the latter has joined Bayern now. Castello Lukeba is yet another French CB who looks top class.


Espanyol 'keeper Joan Garcia has been linked as a potential Ramsdale replacement, and is in the Spain squad. Spain will be looking to complete a summer double, and have the likes of Pau Cubarsi (who was in the provisional squad for Euro24), City overage player Sergio Gomez, ex City youngsters Adrian Bernabe and Eric Garcia, plus the likes of Alex Baena, Fermin Lopez (both of whom were in Spains victorious Euro24 squad), Miguel Gutierrez and Pablo Barrios.

Perhaps one of the more surprising call-ups was Julian Alvarez. The City star added a second Copa America winners medal to his collection this summer, and there was some debate on his City future. Another City star, Claudio Echeverri is back at River Plate on loan, but the highly rated 18 year old will be one to watch. The Argentinians are captained by Nicolas Otamendi and in goal will be Geronimo Rulli - two more City connected players who added the 2024 Copa America to the 2022 World Cup.

Ex-Arsenal stalwart Mo Elneny captains Egypt, while world cup semi-finalist Achraf Hakimi is Morocco's armband wearer.
Brightons Julio Enciso is one of the star men outside of the fancied nations, with the Paraguayan hoping to help his nation to a medal.
Like France, Guinea have an ex-Arsenal striker as head coach - Kaba Diawara will have former Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita captaining his side.


The format is four groups of 4, with the top 2 advancing to the Quarter Finals.

Schedule (every game day there are 2 games at 2pm, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm)
Wednesday 24th July
Group A - Guinea vs New Zealand and France vs USA
Group B - Argentina vs Morocco and Iraq vs Ukraine
Group C - Uzbekistan vs Spain and Egypt vs Dominican Republic
Group D - Japan vs Paraguay and Mali vs Israel

Saturday 27th July
Group A - New Zealand vs USA and France vs Guinea
Group B - Argentina vs Iraq and Morocco vs Ukraine
Group C - Uzbekistan vs Egypt and Spain vs Dominican Republic
Group D - Israel vs Paraguay and Japan vs Mali

Tuesday 30th July
Group A - France vs New Zealand and USA vs Guinea
Group B - Morocco vs Iraq and Ukraine vs Argentina
Group C - Dominican Republic vs Uzbekistan and Egypt vs Spain
Group D - Israel vs Japan and Paraguay vs Mali

Friday 2nd August (a game at 2pm, 4pm, 6pm and 8pm)
4 x Quarter finals

Monday 5th August
2 x Semi Finals (5pm and 8pm)

Thursday 8th August
Bronze medal match (4pm)

Friday 9th August
Gold medal match (5pm)

All matches will be on BBC red button, Eurosport and/or Discovery+

There will also be a womans tournament, with matches the day after the equivalent mens matches.