Olympic Tournaments MVP

It does not look as though there have been any Player of the Tournament awards in the Olympics. For the 2008 edition FIFA sources at different times named Messi, Riquelme and Di Maria as the leading player, but there was nothing official. On balance Riquelme receives the most glowing write-ups.

The tournaments between 1920 and 1952 were included in Ariaga's and Tom's research. There are a few other sources but not many.

It would appear that the following were among the leading contenders for each tournament. Possible best player in bold.

1908: Woodward, Stapley (GB), Sophus Nielsen, Nils Middleboe (Denmark), Bok de Korver (Netherlands).

1912: Walden, Woodward (GB), Nils Middleboe, Ole Anthon Olsen (Denmark), Schlosser (Hungary), Fuchs (Germany).

1920: Coppee, Swartenbroecks (Belgium), Pesek, Janda (Czechoslovakia), Zamora (Spain), Denis (Netherlands), Halvorsen (Norway), De Vecchi (Italy).

1924: Andrade, Petrone, Cea, Scarone, Nasazzi (Uruguay), Max Abegglen (Switzerland), Denis (Netherlands).

1928: Orsi, Carricaberry (Argentina), Mazzali, Nasazzi (Uruguay), Caligaris (Italy), Quincoces (Spain), Raymond Braine (Belgium), van der Meulen (Netherlands).

1936: Teodoro Fernandez (Peru), Locatelli, Rava (Italy), Juve (Norway).

1948: Gren, Nordahl (Sweden), Jovanovic, Cajkowski (Yugoslavia), Viggo Jensen, Pilmark (Denmark).

1952: Puskas, Kocsis, Grosics, Boszik (Hungary), Cajkowski, Beara, Zebec (Yugoslavia).

1956: Yashin, Netto (USSR), Radenkovic, Sekularac (Yugoslavia), Kolev (Bulgaria).

1960: Flemming Nielsen, Harald Nielsen (Denmark), Jusufi, Kostic (Yugoslavia), Albert, Rakosi (Hungary), Rivera (Italy).

1964: Bene, Csernai (Hungary), Belin (Yugoslavia), Schmucker (Czechoslovakia).

1968: Antal Dunai, Novak (Hungary), Kamamoto (Japan), Jekov (Bulgaria).

1972: Deyna, Gadocha, Lato (Poland), Blokhin (USSR), Antal Dunai (Hungary).

1976: Croy (East Germany), Lato, Szarmach (Poland), Platini (France).

1980: Visek, Berger (Czechoslovakia), Steinbach (East Germany), Belloumi (Algeria), Andreev (USSR).

1984: Xuereb (France), Deveric (Yugoslavia), Massaro (Italy), Dunga (Brazil).

1988: Mikhailichenko, Kuznetsov (USSR), Romario, Taffarel (Brazil), Klinsmann (West Germany), Bwalya (Zambia).

1992: Luis Enrique, Guardiola,(Spain), Juskowiak (Poland), Ayew (Ghana).

1996: Okocha, Babayaro, Kanu (Nigeria), Ronaldo, Bebeto, Roberto Carlos (Brazil), Crespo (Argentina).

2000: Zamorano (Chile), Mboma, Geremi, Lauren, Eto'o (Cameroon), Xavi (Spain).

2004: Tevez, D'Alessandro, Mascherano, Heinze, Ayala (Argentina), Bareiro, Barreto, Figueredo (Paraguay), Mahmoud Younis, Sadir Salih, Abdul Whahab Abu Al Hail (Iraq), Pirlo, Gilardino (Italy).

2008: Riquelme, Messi, Di Maria, Romero, Pareja (Argentina), Adeleye (Nigeria), Diego (Brazil), De Mul (Belgium).

2012: Otsu (Japan), Corona, Fabian, Enriquez (Mexico), Damiao (Brazil), Konate (Senegal), Ki Sungyueng (South Korea).

2016: Neymar, Barbosa, Jesus, Marquinhos (Brazil), Etebo (Nigeria), Gnabry (Germany), Elis (Honduras).

2021: Richarlison, Cunha (Brazil), Kubo (Japan), Pedri (Spain), Vega (Mexico).

 

Great list @peterhrt

Nice you have my fellow countryman Teodoro "Lolo" Fernández in 1936, I'm personally don't have him in the contender list because he didn't play semifinals (just played 2 matches). But, absolutely deserves Honorable Mentions.

 

But for crowd trouble Peru would have reached the semi-final in 1936, where they would probably have fancied their chances against Poland.

Player eligibility for the Olympic tournament changed over the years.

1908-1980: Only amateurs allowed. No professionals.

However, differing interpretation of amateur status led to accusations and abuses. After WWII the Eastern European bloc counted all their footballers as amateurs and fielded full-strength sides. To counter this the 1960 and 1964 editions barred players who had appeared in the previous World Cup. African and Asian nations were exempt in 1964.

World Cup restrictions were removed for everyone between 1968 and 1976, then reintroduced for Europe and South America from 1980 to 1988. Boycotts by certain nations in 1980 and 1984 diluted standards further.

From 1984 professionals were allowed.

In 1992 the Olympic tournament became an Under-23 event, with three over-age players permitted from 1996 onwards.

 

A few more brief comments about the Olympic football tournaments.

Unofficial Tournaments

Before the first official tournament there were four unofficial competitions. One match took place in 1896 when a team of Danish sailors and businessmen defeated local Athenians. Football was not meant to be part of the programme but the Danes later received bronze medals.

In Paris in 1900 Upton Park FC defeated a French club, which in turn beat a team made up mainly of Belgian students. No medals were awarded. Four years later Galt FC from Ontario defeated two local teams from St Louis, Missouri where the Games were being held.

An “interim” Olympics was held in 1906 with football teams entered from the cities of Athens, Smyrna, Thessaloniki and Copenhagen. At half-time in the final, Athens were trailing 9-0 to Copenhagen and refused to come out for the second half, handing the Danes the gold medal.

Football An Official Olympic Event

Before WWI British football was far more developed than elsewhere. The first official Olympic tournaments of 1908 and 1912 were won comfortably by English amateur teams competing under the flag of Great Britain.

With the 1916 Games in Berlin cancelled for obvious reasons, Antwerp was the venue in 1920 where the hosts reached the final. Their opponents were the newly formed state of Czechoslovakia who had scored fifteen goals in their three matches so far. Belgium found the net twice during the first half hour. Shortly afterwards the Czechoslovaks walked off the pitch in protest against the refereeing. They were deemed to have disqualified themselves and received no medal.

The tournaments of 1924 and 1928 were the nearest they have ever been to world championships. Uruguay won both, the first in some style.

There was no Olympic football in 1932 following the first World Cup. Italy came out on top in Berlin in 1936. Few denied they had the best team but there were doubts about the amateur status of some of their players.

After a gap of twelve years London hosted in 1948, when Sweden emerged from a strong field. Soon afterwards, a number of leading Scandinavian amateur footballers turned professional.

Eastern Europe Dominates

In 1952 Hungary were the strongest of all Olympic champions. First in a long line of “state amateur” winners from Eastern Europe, they fielded the same players that defeated England the following year and reached the World Cup final the year after.

The aftermath of the Hungarian Revolution led to several withdrawals in 1956, most notably of the holders. USSR were winners. After three successive silver medals Yugoslavia finally struck gold in 1960.

Hungary won two fairly undistinguished tournaments in 1964 and 1968, then a fine Polish side took the gold medal in 1972 two years before before reaching a World Cup semi-final. The Poles were expected to retain their title in 1976 but lost the final to East Germany.

Political boycotts devalued the next two Olympic Games, with Czechoslovakia then France taking advantage on the football pitch. By 1988 communism was about to collapse in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were the last “state amateur” champions.

Under-23 Era

The tournament became an Under-23 event in 1992. After Spanish gold on home soil, Nigeria in 1996 became widely-celebrated first African winners. Cameroon followed suit four years later.

Argentina set a record of twelve consecutive victories in 2004 and 2008, conceding just two goals and collecting two gold medals in the process. For the third time Brazil had to settle for silver in 2012, losing out on this occasion to Mexico.

Hosts in 2016, the Brazilians were determined to make amends in Rio. Informed by his club that he could either be released for the Copa America or Olympics but not both, Neymar chose the Olympics as one of the three over-age players allowed. Brazil duly claimed the one trophy missing from their cabinet, then retained it in Tokyo five years later.

Possible All-Time Olympic XI

Yashin – Novak, Nasazzi, Marquinhos, Babayaro – JL Andrade, Deyna, Cajkowski – Tevez, Woodward, Puskas

 

Unfortunately I don't remember where I got this clipping from. I don't know if I clipped it myself from some magazine of the time (looks German or Austrian) or if someone posted it on this very forum. It is the ideal XI of the Amsterdam Olympics soccer tournament:

 

Thank you for this. Interesting.

It would appear to be a retrospective team chosen later. Goalkeeper Siflis is shown as representing Yugoslavia but that state did not exist until the following year. In 1928 it was still known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Siflis is an odd choice in any case. He only played one match at the Olympics, a 2-1 defeat to Portugal. His team declined to enter the Consolation Tournament for those eliminated early. Siflis really made his name later after moving to Hungary.

The full-backs and half-backs are the wrong way round. Right should be left and vice versa.

Magnozzi is a surprise choice too. He was not picked for Italy's first two matches. He did record a hat-trick against Egypt in the Third Place match, but so did Schavio as Italy won 11-3. Evaristo only came into Argentina's side in the semi-final.

With six Uruguayans in the team of the tournament, Urdinaran edges out Carricaberry on the right wing. Quincoces was mainly at right-back in Spain's all-Basque line-up and presumably rejected in favour of Nasazzi.

 

Sorry. I just saw that this information was included by schwuppe here.

https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/best-players-at-1924-and-1928-olympics.1999630/#post-37341588

 

Mate, sorry to correct you, but this clipping comes from the Sport-Tagblatt, Vienna, June 15, 1928. You can download the issue and all others at:

https://anno.onb.ac.at/cgi-content/anno?aid=wst&datum=1928&zoom=33

The problem in my opinion is that, besides being in German, the handwriting used is really complicated to read.

 

Always happy to be corrected!

That puts a slightly different complexion on things, thanks. The thread linked in your previous post has a lot of good material on the Olympics.

 

So placing the Sport-Tagblatt choices in their proper positions and replacing the goalkeeper who only played one game, the 1928 Olympic team of the tournament might look like this:

Mazzali or van der Meulen - Nasazzi, Arispe - Andrade, Fernandez, Evaristo - Urdinaran, Scarone, Braine, Magnozzi, Orsi

Best player - Orsi