Argentina national under-23 football team

Argentina
Nickname(s) Albicelestes
(White and Sky blue)
Association Asociación del Fútbol Argentino
(Argentine Football Association)
Confederation CONMEBOL (South America)
Head coach Julio Olarticoechea
Captain Victor Cuesta
Most caps Javier Mascherano (18)
Top scorer Domingo Tarasconi (9)
Home stadium Estadio Monumental
FIFA code ARG
First colours
Second colours
First international
 Argentina 11–2 United States 
(Amsterdam, Netherlands; 29 May 1928)
Biggest win
 Argentina 11–2 United States 
(Amsterdam, Netherlands; 29 May 1928)
Biggest defeat
 Nigeria 3–2 Argentina 
(Athens, Georgia, United States; 3 August 1996)
Summer Olympics
Appearances 8 (first in 1928)
Best result Winners (2004, 2008)
Confederations Cup
Appearances 10 (first in 1960)
Best result Champions (1960, 1964, 1980, 2004)

Argentina Olympic football team represents Argentina in international football competitions in the Olympic Games. The selection is limited to players under the age of 23, except three overage players. The team is controlled by the Asociación del Fútbol Argentino (AFA).

History

First participation and podium

The team that won the Silver Medal at the 1928 Olympics.

Argentina took part for the first time in 1928 Summer Olympics held in the Netherlands. The team advanced to the final after defeating United States (with a thrashing 11-2) at the first round and Belgium (6-3) on second round. In semifinals, the national team smashed Egypt by 6-0, qualifying to play the final against Uruguay.

The first match ended in a 1-1 tie so a second game had to be played three days later. In the decisive match, Uruguay won the tournament when defeating Argentina by 2-1 winning the Gold Medal. The Argentine line-up was Bossio, Bidoglio, Paternóster, Médice, Monti, Evaristo, Carricaberri, Tarasconi, Ferreira, Perduca, Orsi.[1]

Amateur teams era

In 1932 no football tournament was held, restarting the activities in 1936 (where Argentina did not take part), being interrupted due to WWII until 1948. Because of an agreement between FIFA and IOC, only amateur players were allowed to play the football tournaments from then on.

Argentina returned to football competition in the 1960 games held in Rome. The squad was eliminated in the first round after a loss to Denmark by 3-2, although the team won its successive games against Tunisia (2-1) and Poland (2-0). Argentina placed 2nd to Denmark.[2]

Argentina's next participation was in the 1964 Summer Olympics organized by Tokyo, where the team finished in the last position of the groupd after a 1-1 to Ghana and a loss to Japan by 2-3.[3] Since then, Argentina had a long absence of the games, not having taken part in the 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980 and 1984 Olympics (being this the first competition where the IOC decided to admit professional players).

Professional teams again

The national team returned for the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul. The changes made by the IOC allowed the squad to include professional players in its list, some of them with several years playing in Argentine Primera División, such as Luis Islas, Pedro Monzón, Néstor Fabbri, Darío Siviski and Jorge Comas among others. Argentina tied 1-1 to United States, then defeating South Korea 2-1, finishing 2nd to the Soviet Union and qualifying to the next stage. On quarter finals, Argentina lost to Brazil by 2-1 being eliminated from the competition.[4]

Since 1992 male competitors must be under 23 years old, then since 1996 23 years old players with three over-23 players allowed per squad. Nevertheless, Argentina did not qualify to play that edition.

Return to the podium

Argentina came back to the competition in the 1996 edition held in Atlanta, United States. For the first time in the history of the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee allowed football representatives to register a maximum of three above-23 players. The Argentine players registered under that condition were Diego Simeone, José Chamot and Roberto Sensini. Former Senior captain Daniel Passarella was the manager.

The national team debuted with a 3-1 victory over the United States. The team then tied to Portugal and Tunisia, both 1-1. Argentina placed 1st in the group, qualifying for the second round. In quarter finals, Argentina trashed Spain by 4-0 which allowed the team to pass to the semi-finals, where it defeated Portugal by 2-0. After 66 years since the first final played in Amsterdam, Argentina got right to play its second olympic final. The match was played on 3 August 1996 and Argentina lost to Nigeria (that had eliminated Brazil at semi-finals) by 2-3.[5] The line-up for the final was: Cavallero; Zanetti, Ayala, Sensini, Chamot; Bassedas, Almeyda, Ortega, Hugo Morales; Claudio López, Crespo. Other players that formed the roster were Carlos Bossio, Marcelo Gallardo and Marcelo Delgado.[6] In the next edition of the games (2000 Argentina did not participate.

First gold

The 2004 Summer Olympics were held in Athens and Argentina returned to the competition after the absence in Sydney. The squad, managed by Marcelo Bielsa, won the gold medal for the first time in its history. Before playing the final, Argentina won all the games in the first round, thrashing Serbia and Montenegro (6-0), then defeating Tunisia and Australia. Argentina finished 1st in the group with no goals allowed. In the quarter finals, Argentina smashed Costa Rica 4-0, reaching the semi-finals against Italy which it beat 3-0. Argentina played the final against Paraguay on August 28, 2004, winning not only the game (1-0) but the gold medal as well.

Argentina won the competition with an astounding campaign, winning the 6 games played, with no goals allowed during the tournament. The team also totaled 17 goals (2,83 per match). The line-up for the final was: Lux; Coloccini, Ayala, Heinze; Lucho González, Mascherano, Kily González, D'Alessandro, Tevez; Rosales, César Delgado. The most notable player of the tournament was Carlos Tevez, also the topscorer with 8 goals.[7][8]

Second gold

Lionel Messi during the Argentina v Brazil match in 2008.

The 2008 Summer Olympics were held in Beijing where Argentina won their second consecutive gold medal. The squad debuted with a victory over Ivory Coast by 2-1, then defeating Australia (1-0) and Serbia (2-0). On knockout stage, Argentina eliminated Netherlands (aet) by 2-1, thrashed Brazil by 3-0 and won the gold medal in the final match v. Nigeria by 1-0.

Argentina won all the matches played (6), scoring 11 goals with only 2 goals conceded. Some of the most notable players of the tournament were Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Ángel Di María, Ever Banega, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Fernando Gago and Pablo Zabaleta, who would also play for the Senior team in successive years. The three over-23 years players were Juan Román Riquelme, Javier Mascherano and Nicolás Pareja.

2012–present

Anthony Lozano scores the goal for Honduras during the match where Argentina was eliminated in 2016.

Argentina did not qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London.

For the 2016 competition held in Rio de Janeiro, most of the players called-up for the squad were not allowed to play by their respective clubs. Some of the players who were denied to the national team were Paulo Dybala, Mauro Icardi, Matías Kranevitter, Luciano Vietto, Ramiro Funes Mori and goalkeeper Augusto Batalla, among others.[9] After the resignation of Gerardo Martino as coach, Julio Olarticoechea (who was the Argentina u-20 coach) was appointed to take over the team.[10]

In Rio 2016, the squad debuted with a loss to Portugal by 2–0, then defeating Algeria by 2–1. In the last fixture of group stage, Argentina drew 1–1 with Honduras, which caused the squad finished 3rd. in the group being eliminated from the competition.[11] Some Argentina's players were Ángel Correa, Jonathan Calleri and Cristian Pavón.

Tournament record

Summer Olympics

Olympics Record
Year Host Round Pos. GP W D L GS GA
1896 Greece Athens No football tournament
1900 France Paris Did Not Participate
1904 United States St. Louis Did Not Participate
1908 United Kingdom London Did Not Participate
1912 Sweden Stockholm Did Not Participate
1920 Belgium Antwerp Did Not Participate
1924 France Paris Did Not Participate
1928 Netherlands Amsterdam Silver Medal25311247
1932 United States Los Angeles No football tournament
1936 Germany Berlin Did Not Participate
1948 United Kingdom London Did Not Participate
1952 Finland Helsinki Did Not Participate
1956 Australia Melbourne Did Not Participate
1960 Italy Rome Round 1 6320164
1964 Japan Tokyo Round 110201134
1968 Mexico Mexico City Did Not Participate
1972 West Germany Munich Did Not Qualify
1976 Canada Montreal Did Not Qualify
1980 Soviet Union Moscow Qualified and Withdrew
1984 United States Los Angeles Did Not Participate
1988 South Korea Seoul Quarter-finals8411245
1992 Spain Barcelona Did Not Qualify
1996 United States Atlanta Silver Medal 26321136
2000 Australia Sydney Did Not Qualify
2004 Greece Athens Gold Medal16600170
2008 China Beijing Gold Medal16600112
2012 United Kingdom London Did Not Qualify
2016 Brazil Rio de Janeiro Round 111311134
2020 Japan Tokyo TBD
Total8/1923322678132

South American Pre-Olympic

Year Host Pos. P W T L GF GC
1960  Peru 6600256
1964  Peru 5500111
1968  Colombia (Did not participate)
1972  Colombia 715176
1976  Brazil 521278
1980  Colombia 6510132
1984  Ecuador (Did not participate)
1988  Bolivia 733182
1992  Paraguay 421143
1996  Argentina 7610213
2000  Brazil 7313129
2004  Chile 7520168
Total613815812448

Team

Current squad

The following 18 players were selected to participate at the 2016 Summer Olympics.[12][13]

0#0 Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club
1 1GK Gerónimo Rulli (1992-05-20) May 20, 1992 6 0 Spain Real Sociedad
12 1GK Axel Werner (1996-02-28) February 28, 1996 0 0 Spain Atlético de Madrid

2 2DF Lautaro Gianetti (1993-11-13) November 13, 1993 5 0 Argentina Vélez Sarsfield
3 2DF Alexis Soto (1993-10-20) October 20, 1993 4 0 Argentina Banfield
4 2DF José Luis Gómez (1993-09-10) September 10, 1993 6 0 Argentina Lanús
6 2DF Victor Cuesta (1988-11-19) November 19, 1988 6 0 Argentina Independiente
15 2DF Lisandro Magallán (1993-09-27) September 27, 1993 3 0 Argentina Boca Juniors
16 2DF Leandro Vega (1996-05-27) May 27, 1996 2 0 Argentina River Plate

5 3MF Lucas Romero (1994-04-18) April 18, 1994 3 0 Brazil Cruzeiro
8 3MF Santiago Ascacibar (1997-02-25) February 25, 1997 5 0 Argentina Estudiantes
13 4FW Joaquin Arzura (1993-05-18) May 18, 1993 2 0 Argentina River Plate
14 3MF Giovani Lo Celso (1996-04-09) April 9, 1996 6 0 Argentina Rosario Central
17 3MF Mauricio Martínez (1993-02-20) February 20, 1993 5 2 Argentina Rosario Central

7 3MF Cristian Pavón (1996-01-21) January 21, 1996 3 0 Argentina Boca Juniors
9 4FW Jonathan Calleri (1993-09-23) September 23, 1993 6 1 Brazil São Paulo
10 4FW Ángel Correa (1995-03-09) March 9, 1995 6 2 Spain Atlético Madrid
11 4FW Giovanni Simeone (1995-07-05) July 5, 1995 6 1 Italy Genoa
18 4FW Cristian Espinoza (1995-04-03) April 3, 1995 6 0 Spain Villareal

Notable players

Former squads

Honours

See also

References

External links

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