With a 98-second video narrated by coach Marko Mitrovic, the U.S. Soccer federation announced the 18-player men’s team that will take the the field July 24 in Marseilles against host country France.
Such relatively familiar players as Gianluca Busio, Jack McGlynn and Caleb Wiley are on the roster.
U.S. star Christian Pulisic was not among those selected.
How could the best male player in the United States not be an Olympian?
It’s a quirk of the Olympic soccer competition that the teams involved are not the national teams that represent their nations in events like Copa America, Euro 2024 and the World Cup. Especially the World Cup.
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It’s always been problematic for Olympic soccer teams to field their best men’s players because of the restriction to amateur players. As professional soccer became more prominent, and as FIFA’s World Cup grew in popularity, Olympic soccer became a lesser competition because such superstars as Garrincha and Pele of Brazil were not able to compete.
The amateurism barrier eventually collapsed, and in 1984 the International Olympic Committee permitted pros to play in men’s soccer. By then, however, FIFA had no desire for a competition that would rival the World Cup, its primary source of revenue, in popularity or prestige. So for the Los Angeles Games, a formula was devised that forbade European and South American players who had appeared in a World Cup from playing, but nations from other continents could field their best side.
In 1992, at Barcelona, a more logical system was devised: the restriction to competitors who are age 23 or younger, with three exceptions for “overage” players.
And that’s where we are now.
There are several members of the regular U.S. men’s national team who meet the age standard to compete at the Olympics. Midfielder Gio Reyna is 21. So are midfielder Yunus Musah and right back Joe Scally. Midfielder Johnny Cardoso is 22. Striker Folarin Balogun is 23, and he would be getting the chance to play where he has been a pro, in France’s Ligue 1, since 2022.
However, there is no requirement by FIFA for clubs to release players for the Olympic Games.
This summer has featured two major continental competitions for men’s teams, Euro 2024 in Germany and Copa America in the United States. Reyna, Musah and the others all were members of the USMNT squad that competed in Copa America. With the club soccer schedule in the major European leagues opening in mid-August, many players are eager for some time to rest before beginning that nine-month grind.
However, there were players who did not play extensively in those competitions that were interested in the Olympics. USMNT forward Haji Wright, 26, could have been one of the overage selections, but Coventry City in England reportedly declined to allow him to participate.
France superstar Kylian Mbappe – who will play Tuesday in the Euro 2024 semifinal against Spain – had interest in playing at the Games in his home nation. But his new club, Real Madrid, chose not to release him.
Four-time gold medalists in Olympic soccer, the United States women’s national team will be led by top players Lindsey Horan, Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson and Naomi Girma. They will face a field loaded with international superstars, including Aitana Bonmati, Salma Paralluelo and Alexia Putellas.
Of those players only Paralluelo, 20, would make a U-23 standard.
MORE: Complete USA women's soccer roster | Schedule
Women’s soccer was introduced to the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, only a year after FIFA agreed to grant the “World Cup” name to its top women’s soccer competition. The Olympics since have been an essential part of the growth of the women’s game.
Some contrarians have argued women’s soccer has “outgrown” the Olympics – how does a sport outgrow the most important sporting event on the planet? – and that it should be a U-23 competition, like the men’s.
But women’s soccer needs as many big stages as it can get in the continued fight to grow its audience. Although the IOC restricts women’s soccer to 12 teams while the men’s tournament has 16, a difference that remains indefensible, competing at the Olympics has been great for the women’s game.
Mike DeCourcy is a Senior Writer at The Sporting News
