Players to Watch at the Olympic Games
3362
The Olympic Games is fast approaching and the men's football tournament will take place from the 22nd of July to 7th of August 2021.
Many of the major football nations from around the world will be participating in the event including France, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Mexico, South Africa, Japan, and South Korea.
There will be plenty of fantastic talent on show but which players should you be looking out for at the Olympic Games this summer?
The standout name, especially given his performances at the European Championship for Spain, has to be Pedri. Despite featuring heavily for the Spanish national team at the European Championship, a tournament which saw them reach the semi-final, Pedri appears to be on the plane to Japan.
At just 18 years of age, the Barcelona midfielder easily qualifies for the team and he enjoyed a fantastic European Championship. Many onlookers have Pedri as one of the players of the tournament and the hierarchy at Barcelona believed he may be given a rest following that event.
However, Pedri has been named in the Spanish Olympic squad and he could easily lead Spain all the way to the gold medal, thanks to his high quality passing and composure in midfield.
In Group A, Mexico have an exciting young forward by the name Alexis Vega. The 23 year old currently plays for Liga MX club Guadalajara and has also featured 8 times for the full Mexican national team, scoring one goal.
He played during the 2020 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship and it was during the qualifying process that Vega opened his goal scoring account for his country.
A good Olympic Games could see Vegas catch the eye of several European clubs and a potential transfer could be on the card before the beginning of the 2021/22 campaign.
Neymar had not been named in the Brazil squad for the Olympics but Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli has been included and he has the potential to set the tournament alight.
Martinelli has looked promising during his time at Arsenal but injuries have held back his progress at the Emirates Stadium. He became the first player to score four times in his first four starts for The Gunners since Ian Wright and Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, labelled him the “talent of the century”.
Martinelli will be joined by Reinier, an exciting young attacking midfielder from Borussia Dortmund, where he is on loan from Real Madrid. Having already played for the Brazil U15, Brazil U17, and Brazil U23 teams, Reinier is moving in the right direction and could make a huge statement at this event.
Moving onto the Germany squad and Cologne's Ismail Jakobs and Hertha Berlin's Arne Maier are two players to watch.
Both men were part of the Germany U21 team that won the European U21 Championship in Slovenia recently. Maier won the Fritz Walter Medal U19 Silver Medal in 2018 and Jakobs has recently been linked with a move to Monaco in Ligue 1.
The Olympic Games football tournament will be exciting to watch and we are sure to see the emergence of some excellent young players.
Home
Football 
Basketball
Hockey
American Football
Baseball
Rugby
Volleyball
Handball
Esoccer
