Those who are not fully aware of the specifics of the Olympics might be surprised. The French team that will face the United States this Wednesday evening in Marseille for the start of the football tournament will not resemble in any way the team that has just played in Euro 2024.
At the Olympics, men’s football is the only sport to impose an age limit on participants. Only players aged 23 and under are eligible, with each team being able to call up three “wild cards”, with no age limit. This measure was put in place to prevent the Olympics from competing with the football World Cup, and conversely to prevent football stars from overshadowing traditional Olympic sports, which need the exposure of the Games.
No Mbappé or Griezmann
As a result, in Thierry Henry’s French Olympic team, there are no players who have played in the Euro. Four players, born in 2001 or later, were nevertheless eligible (William Saliba, Eduardo Camavinga, Bradley Barcola and Warren Zaïre-Emery), but they were all selected by their club. The same goes for Kylian Mbappé and Antoine Griezmann, great sports lovers, who dreamed of these Olympic Games in Paris. But their employers vetoed it.
The backbone of the Blues will therefore be made up of players who were in the Espoirs in recent years. Thierry Henry has chosen to call up only two players over the age of 23, Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon) and Jean-Philippe Mateta (Crystal Palace), who will form the attacking duo in the coach’s 4-3-1-2. We will be closely following attacking midfielder Michael Olise, recruited at a high price by Bayern Munich, as well as goalkeeper Guillaume Restes (Toulouse) and defender Castello Lukeba (Leipzig).
France-United States, the probable line-ups
France: Remains – Sildillia, Lukeba, Badé, Truffert – Millot, Chotard, Koné – Olise – Mateta, Lacazette (c).
United States: Schulte – Dietz, Zimmerman (c), Robinson, Tolkin – Busio, Tessmann, Mihailovic – Paredes, McGuire, Aaronson.
