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Men’s football action at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 takes place from 24 July to 9 August.
The 16 best youth teams in the world are boosted by the inclusion of some superstar over-age players, in what's likely to be an unpredictable event.
Olympic men’s squads must consist of players under the age of 23, with three overage players allowed as part of the 18-man squads.
Back-to-back reigning Olympic champions Brazil did not qualify for Paris. The standout teams involved include Argentina, Spain, and hosts France.
Here are the key things you need to know about men’s football at Paris 2024, the big names selected, and how to watch the action.
Sixteen teams are divided into four groups of four. Each nation plays against all the other teams in their group, with the top two in each group afterwards progressing to the knockout stages.
Alexandre Lacazette will lead France at his home Olympic Games at Paris 2024.
Hosts France will be led by captain Alexandre Lacazette, the former Arsenal man now back at boyhood club Olympique Lyonnais. Naby Keita, Champions League winner with Liverpool in 2019, will also be captaining his nation of Guinea in Paris.
Argentina can count on four players who won the 2022 FIFA World Cup: Julian Alvarez, Nicolas Otamendi, Geronimo Rulli and Thiago Almada. The quartet will try to write history as the first male players to win the FIFA World Cup and then Olympic gold, in that order, a unique feat in football.
Two new European champions, Fermin Lopez and Alex Baena, are aiming for more glory with Spain and trying to improve on the nation’s silver medal at Tokyo 2020 (held in 2021).
Achraf Hakimi will be determined to lead Morocco to the gold medal match, as it will be hosted at the PSG star’s home stadium, the Parc des Princes. Along with Lopez and Baena, Ukraine’s Maksym Taloverov are playing at Paris 2024 having already lined up for Euro 2024 in a busy summer of football.
There are also plenty of big names who will be leading their nations from the sidelines. France are managed by French football legend and Olympic Torchbearer Thierry Henry, while Argentina's two-time Olympic champion Javier Mascherano is aiming to become the first man to win the Olympic men’s football tournament as a player and a coach.
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Men's football games will take place in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Saint-Etienne, Nice, and Nantes.
The gold medal match will be played at the Parc des Princes in Paris on 9 August.
Men's football during Paris 2024 will take place from 24 July to 9 August.
The tournament openers on 24 July will feature the newly crowned champions of Europe and South America, Spain and Argentina respectively. Spain take on Uzbekistan in Paris, while Argentina will face Morocco in Saint-Étienne.
All the action from Paris 2024 can be watched via media rights holders (MRHs).
MRHs include France Télévisions in France, NBC in the United States, SKY NZ in New Zealand, Discovery Eurosport across Europe, Fuji TV/NHK/Nippon TV/TBS/TV Asahi/TV Tokyo in Japan, ARD/ZDF in Germany, the BBC in the United Kingdom, SuperSport in South Africa and Nine in Australia.
Check listings in other regions for your local broadcaster.
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