While the rules for the Olympics men’s football tournament have changed over the decades, it is essentially an under-23 competition with three overage players allowed.
Great Britain have also not entered a team since the 1970s with the exception of London 2012, to keep the independence of the four home nations for UEFA and FIFA competitions.
Despite these restrictions, there’s always been a route from the Etihad to the Olympics competition, including at this year’s games in Paris where Julian Alvarez will be in the Argentina squad, Alanna Kennedy and Mary Fowler, with Australia, Yui Hasegawa and new signing Risa Shimizu with Japan and Laia Alexandri in Spain’s squad.
As the countdown begins for Paris 2024, we take a look back at some of the City players that have taken part in the Olympics.
Tokyo 2020
Held in the summer of 2021 amid the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was an incredible number of current and ex-City players in Asia.
Great Britain’s women’s squad included Ellie Roebuck, Lucy Bronze, Demi Stokes, Keira Walsh, Steph Houghton, Ellen White, Caroline Weir, Lauren Hemp and Georgia Stanway as well as former players Jill Scott, Nikita Parris and Ella Toone and future goalkeeper Sandy MacIver.
After topping the group that included Janine Beckie’s Canada and Yui Hasegawa’s Japan, they were beaten in the quarter-finals by Australia who had Mary Fowler, Alanna Kennedy, Hayley Raso in their ranks.
Australia would miss out on a medal though. Losing the semi-final to Sweden, who had Filippa Angeldahl in their side and they were then beaten by Canada in the final with Beckie claiming gold.
In the men’s tournament, City defender Eric Garcia was with the Spain squad that went all the way to the final before losing out to Brazil.
Rio de Janeiro 2016
City had another gold medallist in Brazil with Gabriel Jesus in the winning squad for the hosts.
Then with Palmeiras, he agreed to join City during the tournament as the teenager helped the nation to the victory they desperately wanted.
In the women’s tournament, City midfielder Kosovare Asllani picked up a silver medal as Sweden reached the final where they were beaten by Germany.
Beckie, then with Houston Dash, collected a bronze for Canada while Kennedy was unfortunate to miss the spot when Australia lost on penalties to Brazil in the quarter-finals.
London 2012
As hosts, Great Britain’s men were given special dispensation to take part with former City boss Stuart Pearce selecting a squad from the home nations.
He included City defender Micah Richards and former players Daniel Sturridge, Craig Bellamy and Scott Sinclair but it ended in disappointment with defeat on penalties in the quarter-finals.
Mexico went on to win gold beating Brazil in the final who included future City full-back Danilo in their squad.
In the women’s tournament, USA won gold with Carli Lloyd, who would later have a spell at City while Karen Bardsley, Houghton, Scott and White were with Team GB who also lost out in the last-eight to Canada.
Beijing 2008
The summer in China’s capital was a great place to be to spot future City legends with a who’s who of stars at the tournament.
Argentina collected gold with Pablo Zabaleta and Sergio Aguero in the squad that beat Nigeria in front of 90,000 people in Beijing.
Also in the tournament were Aleksandar Kolarov, with Serbia, and Vincent Kompany, with Belgium along with Jo who signed for City on the eve of the tournament.
He scored twice in the bronze medal match against Belgium in Shanghai to finish the tournament in style.
USA women again won gold with Lloyd scoring an injury time winner in the final against Brazil.
Athens 2004
There was no doubting who was the star of the 2004 Olympics where Argentina’s men won gold again.
Carlos Tevez scored eight times for the Gold medal winners, including the goal in the final against Paraguay.
Indeed, he scored in seven of Argentina’s eight games only missing out in a group game with Australia.
Then with Boca Juniors, it would be another five years before he arrived at the Etihad Stadium.
Fellow squad member Willy Caballero was in Spain with Elche and would finally arrive at City a decade later.
Sydney 2000
No ex-City players collected medals in Australia as Cameroon beat Spain to gold in the final at the turn of the century.
Simon Colisimo was in the squad for the hosts and would join City a year later where he made seven appearances under Kevin Keegan.
Brazil also had Geovanni in their squad and Sven-Goran Eriksson would bring him to the Etihad another seven years later via Barcelona and Benfica.
Atlanta 1996
Again no medals but there were some players that would go onto play for the Blues.
Claudio Reyna represented USA, Danny Tiatto was with Australia and Antoine Sibierski was in the France squad.
Barcelona 1992
Hosts Spain took gold and had a certain Pep Guardiola in their team.
After breaking into the Barcelona team, he was named in Vicente Miera’s squad, scoring their first goal of the tournament in a 4-0 win over Colombia.
While the games were played all over Spain, the final was held at the Camp Nou where they beat Poland 3-2 thanks to an injury time winner.
Reyna’s USA were knocked out in the group stage as were Denmark who had Ronnie Ekelund in the squad shortly before a brief stint at City in 1995/96 where he made six appearances.
