Olympic Games Paris 2024

Paris 2024 Olympics: How Pep Guardiola and the EURO 2024 champions inspire the Spanish Olympic side

By Michael Hincks
3 min|
Fermin Lopez is playing in the Olympics after featuring for Spain at EURO 2024 

Picture by 2024 Getty Images

Spain may have gone more then three decades without an Olympic gold in the men’s football, but they do have recent glory to draw inspiration from heading to Paris 2024.

A perfect UEFA EURO 2024 tournament saw Spain win every single match en route to the final, where they then beat England 2-1.

It was the fourth time Spain have won the UEFA European Championships, and two members of that squad will be in action at the Olympics as well: Alex Baena and Fermin Lopez.

"We are very happy to have them, and that they won such an important championship," Spain’s coach Santi Denia said. "We want to thank them for making the effort to be here at the Olympic Games and for having the commitment to be at both tournaments."

Pep Guardiola the last Spain captain to win Olympic gold

Villarreal’s Baena and Barcelona’s Lopez will be targeting a summer double to remember, with Spain aiming to emulate the men’s team from 1992, who won gold on home soil in Barcelona 32 years ago and were captained by now Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.

"Pep was a very good player and his are very important steps that we need to follow,” said captain Abel Ruiz, one of Spain’s permitted three players over 23.

“We will do our best to go out and win the tournament. We know that we didn’t have the gold medal for a long time, so obviously we come here with the objective to win, and we are focused on that.”

Since winning gold at Barcelona 1992, Spain have gone on to win two silver medals at the Olympics, at Sydney 2000 and Tokyo 2020.

Three years ago, Mikel Oyarzabal was among the Spain stars who finished runners-up to champions Brazil.

Oyarzabal scored in that final, which Spain lost 2-1 after extra-time, and he was also on target in the recent UEFA EURO 2024 final against England, scoring the winning goal.

At Paris 2024, Barcelona’s 21-year-old Lopez could be among the standout players in the men’s football tournament.

Fermin Lopez celebrates after scoring against Sevilla

Picture by 2024 Getty

Lopez enjoyed a breakthrough campaign at Barcelona last season, scoring 11 times, and that earned him a place in Luis de la Fuente's Euros squad.

He came off the bench against Albania in the group stages, and looks set to play a major role in the senior team for years to come.

First, though, he will target an historic first, as both he and Baena aim to become the first outfield players to win the European Championships and Olympic gold in the same summer.

Spain play Uzbekistan in their Group C opener on 24 July, and then face Dominican Republic on 27 July before taking on Egypt on 30 July.

If Spain top their group, they will face the runners-up of Group D in the quarter-finals, and if they finish second, they will face the winners of Group D, which consists of Israel, Japan, Mali and Paraguay.

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