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)
Medal record 2004 Athens Team 2008 Beijing Team 1928 Amsterdam Team 1996 Atlanta Team

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	Athens	No football tournament
1900	Paris	Did Not Participate
1904	St. Louis	Did Not Participate
1908	London	Did Not Participate
1912	Stockholm	Did Not Participate
1920	Antwerp	Did Not Participate
1924	Paris	Did Not Participate
1928	Amsterdam	Silver Medal	2	5	3	1	1	24	7
1932	Los Angeles	No football tournament
1936	Berlin	Did Not Participate
1948	London	Did Not Participate
1952	Helsinki	Did Not Participate
1956	Melbourne	Did Not Participate
1960	Rome	Round 1	6	3	2	0	1	6	4
1964	Tokyo	Round 1	10	2	0	1	1	3	4
1968	Mexico City	Did Not Participate
1972	Munich	Did Not Qualify
1976	Montreal	Did Not Qualify
1980	Moscow	Qualified and Withdrew
1984	Los Angeles	Did Not Participate
1988	Seoul	Quarter-finals	8	4	1	1	2	4	5
1992	Barcelona	Did Not Qualify
1996	Atlanta	Silver Medal	2	6	3	2	1	13	6
2000	Sydney	Did Not Qualify
2004	Athens	Gold Medal	1	6	6	0	0	17	0
2008	Beijing	Gold Medal	1	6	6	0	0	11	2
2012	London	Did Not Qualify
2016	Rio de Janeiro	Round 1	11	3	1	1	1	3	4
2020	Tokyo	TBD
Total		8/19	2	33	22	6	7	81	32

South American Pre-Olympic

Year	Host	Pos.	P	W	T	L	GF	GC
1960	Peru	1º	6	6	0	0	25	6
1964	Peru	1º	5	5	0	0	11	1
1968	Colombia	(Did not participate)
1972	Colombia	3º	7	1	5	1	7	6
1976	Brazil	3º	5	2	1	2	7	8
1980	Colombia	1º	6	5	1	0	13	2
1984	Ecuador	(Did not participate)
1988	Bolivia	2º	7	3	3	1	8	2
1992	Paraguay	5º	4	2	1	1	4	3
1996	Argentina	2º	7	6	1	0	21	3
2000	Brazil	3º	7	3	1	3	12	9
2004	Chile	1º	7	5	2	0	16	8
Total			61	38	15	8	124	48

• Since 2007, the Olympic Qualification tournament from CONMEBOL's members is the U-20 South American Championship.

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	GK	Gerónimo Rulli	May 20, 1992	6	0	Real Sociedad
12	GK	Axel Werner	February 28, 1996	0	0	Atlético de Madrid
2	DF	Lautaro Gianetti	November 13, 1993	5	0	Vélez Sarsfield
3	DF	Alexis Soto	October 20, 1993	4	0	Banfield
4	DF	José Luis Gómez	September 10, 1993	6	0	Lanús
6	DF	Victor Cuesta	November 19, 1988	6	0	Independiente
15	DF	Lisandro Magallán	September 27, 1993	3	0	Boca Juniors
16	DF	Leandro Vega	May 27, 1996	2	0	River Plate
5	MF	Lucas Romero	April 18, 1994	3	0	Cruzeiro
8	MF	Santiago Ascacibar	February 25, 1997	5	0	Estudiantes
13	FW	Joaquin Arzura	May 18, 1993	2	0	River Plate
14	MF	Giovani Lo Celso	April 9, 1996	6	0	Rosario Central
17	MF	Mauricio Martínez	February 20, 1993	5	2	Rosario Central
7	MF	Cristian Pavón	January 21, 1996	3	0	Boca Juniors
9	FW	Jonathan Calleri	September 23, 1993	6	1	São Paulo
10	FW	Ángel Correa	March 9, 1995	6	2	Atlético Madrid
11	FW	Giovanni Simeone	July 5, 1995	6	1	Genoa
18	FW	Cristian Espinoza	April 3, 1995	6	0	Villareal

Notable players

• 

  Angel Bossio, the 1928 goalkeeper.

• 

  Domingo Tarasconi, 1928 topscorer (9 goals).

• 

  Hernán Crespo, 1996 topscorer (6 goals).

• 

  Carlos Tevez, the 2004 topscorer with 8 goals.

• 

  Javier Mascherano, 2 gold medals and most caps.

• 

  Lionel Messi won the gold medal in 2008.

• 

  Sergio Agüero was part of the 2008 team.

Former squads

1928 1960 1964 1988

1996 2004 2008 2016

Honours

• Gold medal: 2004, 2008
• Silver medal: 1928, 1996

See also

• Argentina national football team
• Argentina national under-20 football team

References

1. Games of the IX Olympiad at RSSSF
2. Games of the XVII Olympiad
3. Games of the XVIII Olympiad
4. Games of the XXIV Olympiad
5. "1996: Nigeria tocó el cielo olímpico" at Univisión
6. Games of the XXVI Olympiad
7. "Argentina era campeón olímpico de la mano de Bielsa en Atenas 2004", PlayFutbol, 27 December 2012
8. Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
9. La selección olímpica, abandonada: faltan jugadores y ni siquiera hay plata para "pagar el almuerzo", La Nación, 30 Jun 2016
10. Olarticoechea, el técnico de la Sub 20, fue designado para dirigir en los Juegos Olímpicos, La Capital, 6 Jul 2016
11. "La Selección no pudo con Honduras y quedó afuera en primera ronda", Clarín, 10 Aug 2016
12. "La AFA confirmó la lista de 18 jugadores que irán a Río" [AFA confirms the list of 18 players that will go to Rio]. Clarin (in Spanish). Retrieved 5 July 2006.
13. ""Estoy Orgulloso"" ["I'm proud"] (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 July 2006.

External links

• Argentina under-23 at AFA website