The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will open at the end of this month, and the football competition will be played on July 24, with France, Argentina and Spain among the favourites. The Olympic men's football competition restricts players to under the age of 23, so in football events, the attention of the Olympic Games is much lower than that of the World Cup, and even the European Cup, but the Olympic Games still have a certain appeal, because to be able to win the Olympic gold medal, it is also an important honor in the career of football players, historically, players who can win both the World Cup and the Olympic gold medal are very rare, and they belong to the existence of rare hands.
From the history of the World Cup and the Olympic Games, there are only 13 players who can have both World Cup and Olympic titles, of which 7 players were members of the first World Cup in 1930, Uruguay won the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games, and also won the first World Cup, so there are 7 players in Uruguay's history who have both World Cup and Olympic titles: Andrade, Sea, Nasatchi, Scalone, Castro, Gestedo and Fernandez.
In addition to Uruguay's seven players, Italy also has four players who have won both the World Cup and the Olympics. Bertoni, Forney, Locatelli and Rava won the 1936 Olympic Games and the 1938 World Cup. The achievements of these 11 players are already in ancient times before the last century, almost a hundred years ago. For nearly 100 years, only two superstars in world football, Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria, have won both the World Cup and the Olympic gold medal.
Argentina defended its Olympic title at Beijing 2008, while Messi and Angel Di Maria, who were only 21 and 20 years old at the time, were the main contributors to Argentina's victory. At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Messi and Di Maria once again led Argentina to the championship as main players, spanning 14 years in between, so Messi and Di Maria are the only two remaining players who have both World Cup and Olympic titles. The rest of the world's football giants such as Ronaldo, Zidane, Platini, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mbappe and other superstars have not been able to do this.
Among the active players, Mbappe originally had the opportunity to achieve this football miracle, but because Mbappe joined Real Madrid this summer, Real Madrid refused Mbappe to play for France in the Olympics on the grounds of preparing for the new season, and Mbappe lost the opportunity to match Messi Di Maria. Now Argentina is the favorite to win the Paris Olympics, and the four members of the 2022 World Cup champions Alvarez, Otamendi, Rulli and Almada have a chance to challenge for Olympic gold medals.
Germany, who won the World Cup in 2014, was very close to winning another Olympic gold medal, but in the final of the Rio Olympics, Brazil defeated Germany to win the title, not only avenging the defeat in 2014, but also ending Germany's hopes of winning the World Cup and the Olympic Games in a row. Although Brazil won two consecutive Olympic gold medals in 2016 and 2020, Brazil has not won a title for 22 consecutive years in the World Cup, so Brazil players have not won both tournaments.
The Paris Olympic football event has been fully launched, France Olympic Games, Spain Olympic Games, Argentina Olympic Games, Japan Olympic Games have become 4 favorite teams to win the championship, Argentina Olympic Games can follow the footsteps of the national team big brother to win the major championship is a major attraction, if Argentina can finally win the championship, then the number of players who have both the World Cup and the Olympic championship will increase to 17.