Lionel Messi, Pep Guardiola, Neymar & the biggest names to win Olympic gold in men's football

No nation has won more Olympic gold medals in men's football than Hungary, tied on three with Great Britain, and the first of those triumphant teams featured the country's greatest ever player, Ferenc Puskas. Aged 25 at the time, Puskas opened the scoring in the 1952 gold medal match as Hungary beat Yugoslavia 2-0.

This feat came some six years before he made the monumental switch to Real Madrid, where he would win 10 trophies - including three European Cups. Puskas' status as one of the sport's greats is evident in the fact that, in 2009, FIFA named the award for the most beautiful goal of the year after him.

Another great of the game to have an accolade named after him, Lev Yashin was in goal for the Soviet Union at the 1956 Olympics and kept three clean sheets, including one in the final, as they beat Yugoslavia in Melbourne to win gold. Four years later, the two teams would meet in the final of the inaugural European Championships in Paris and the outcome was the same, with Yashin named to the Team of the Tournament as the Soviet Union became champions of Europe.

Now, France Football annually awards the Yashin Trophy to the best goalkeeper of the year, cementing the legacy of the only player in that position to have ever won the Ballon d'Or.

Two of the current era's most recognisable managers won gold at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, one of them being Pep Guardiola. There were 95,000 people packed into Camp Nou as Spain beat Poland 3-2 in a dramatic final, with former Atletico Madrid striker Kiko scoring a 91st minute winner for his country.

Guardiola, who had scored the first goal in Spain's tournament-opening win over Colombia a couple of weeks earlier, was in midfield that day. It was the only honour the current Manchester City boss would win with his country, despite him lifting 15 trophies in the colours of Barcelona. He has since gone on to become one of the greatest managers of all time, winning 38 titles across spells with Barca, Bayern Munich and Man City.

Also in midfield on that summer's day in Barcelona was Luis Enrique, another future manager of the Catalan club. Aged 22 at the time, one year older than Guardiola, he too would not win another title with Spain, despite also going on to coach the national team.

At the time of the Olympics, Enrique was actually playing for Real Madrid, with whom he won three major trophies before joining Barca in 1996. He would spend eight years in Catalunya and begin his coaching journey there, taking over the B team before being appointed first team boss some six years later, following time in charge of Roma and Celta Vigo. Today, Enrique is manager of Paris Saint-Germain.

One of Africa's greatest ever players, Nwankwo Kanu was the captain of the Nigeria team that won Olympic gold in 1996. In the same summer that he swapped Ajax for Inter, Kanu scored three times at the Games, his first securing a narrow group stage win over Hungary and his second and third coming in a thrilling semi-final clash with Brazil. His first strike that day came in the 90th minute and levelled things up at 3-3 to send the game to extra time, while his second was the golden goal that decided the match.

Only Italy's Marco Branca, the Brazil duo of Ronaldo and Bebeto and Hernan Crespo, whose Argentina side were beaten in the final by Nigeria, scored more goals at the tournament than Kanu, who would later represent Arsenal, West Brom and Portsmouth in a glittering career that included a Champions League triumph.

Another star of that Nigeria side was Jay-Jay Okocha, the tricky attacking midfielder who played for Eintracht Frankfurt, Fenerbahce, Paris Saint-Germain and Bolton Wanderers, among others, in a captivating career. Okocha scored twice at the 1996 Games, in a group stage win over Japan and the quarter-final victory against Mexico, and started the gold medal match which Nigeria won 3-2.

Despite his incredible talent, Okocha never won another major title in his career. The closest he came was while in England with Bolton, who reached the League Cup final in 2003-04 but lost to Middlesbrough.

Four years after Nigeria's gold medal win, another African nation came out on top in the 2000 Olympics as Cameroon defeated Spain on penalties in Sydney. The silver medalists boasted talents like Xavi and Carles Puyol but the same can be said of the team that beat them, with Samuel Eto'o the big star. Though he only scored one goal at the tournament, he saved it for the final, levelling the scores at 2-2 before converting his spot-kick in the shootout.

Eto'o was on the books of Real Madrid when the Olympics got underway in Australia that summer, but he struggled for opportunities and was about to switch to Mallorca instead. It was there that he would make a name for himself, enough to secure a transfer to Barcelona in 2004. Later playing for Inter and Chelsea, Eto'o won 15 major honours in Europe, including three Champions League titles, and twice helped Cameroon become champions of Africa.

Another star name in that Cameroon team was Lauren, a member of Arsenal's 'Invincibles' side that went undefeated through the entire 2003-04 Premier League season. Born in Cameroon but raised in Spain, the defender made his breakthrough with Levante and Mallorca before signing for the Gunners ahead of the 2000 Olympic Games.

It was evident throughout the tournament in Australia just why the English side were interested in Lauren, who scored three goals and converted his penalty in the shootout of the gold medal match to help his country triumph. Despite also winning two Africa Cup of Nations titles with Cameroon, Lauren announced his international retirement in 2002, aged 25, and from there on was solely focused on delivering success to his club, helping Arsenal to win seven trophies in six seasons. He later joined Portsmouth and finished his career with Cordoba.

Former Real Madrid and Chelsea midfielder Geremi was another member of Cameroon's gold medal-winning team in 2000. Aged 21 when the Games commenced, he was already a star in Spain having helped Los Blancos win the Champions League just a few weeks earlier. He brought that experience in the big moments to the table at the Olympics, scoring his penalty in Cameroon's shootout win.

Geremi played his part in his country's Africa Cup of Nations wins in 2000 and 2002, helped Real Madrid win La Liga and another Champions League trophy, then joined Chelsea and was in the Jose Mourinho-led side that claimed back-to-back Premier League titles in 2005 and 2006.

Argentina won back-to-back gold medals in 2004 and 2008, so it's no surprise that several of the nation's big names make this list, starting with a man who was part of both triumphs, Javier Mascherano. As a 20-year-old in 2004, he started in midfield for an Argentina team coached by Marcelo Bielsa, tasked with protecting a defence that featured Fabricio Coloccini, Roberto Ayala, Gabriel Heinze. It was a job he performed admirably throughout the tournament, as the eventual champions did not concede once in any of their six fixtures in Greece.

Four years later, the cast behind him had changed, featuring the likes of Pablo Zabaleta and Ezequiel Garay, but Mascherano remained and again performed brilliantly as, after beating Paraguay 1-0 in Athens, Argentina defeated Nigeria by the same scoreline in Beijing. As well as winning 19 major honours with Barcelona, including two Champions League titles, no Argentinian athlete has won more Olympic gold medals than Mascherano.

While Argentina's 2004 triumph was built on a sturdy defence, Carlos Tevez was the star attacker for the South American nation and scored the only goal in the gold medal match with Paraguay. It was his eighth of the Games, making him the top-scorer by some distance.

At the time, Tevez was still playing in his home country for Boca Juniors and his move to Europe was still a couple of years away. Through spells at Corinthians and West Ham, the forward would play at the highest level with Manchester United, Manchester City and Juventus, before returning to Boca in 2015. He would retire at his boyhood club, having won 26 major club honours in an incredible 20-year career as a professional.

Alongside an incredibly exciting crop of young talent, Juan Roman Riquelme was one of Argentina's three over-age players at the 2008 Olympic Games, captaining his country as his wonderful career started to wind down. The former Barcelona and Villarreal star was back at Boca Juniors at this point, but his 2007 Ballon d'Or nomination showed that he was very much still playing at a high level, something he showed at Beijing 2008.

Scorer of the final goal in Argentina's 3-0 semi-final win over rivals Brazil, Riquelme would play until 2015 and is now the president of Boca, with whom he won 11 trophies as a player.

Though only 21 at the time of the Games, Lionel Messi was already a superstar in 2008, as evidenced by his third-placed finish in the Ballon d'Or ranking the year before. The Barcelona icon already had two La Liga titles and a Champions League triumph to his name and would showcase his remarkable talent in China to help add an Olympic gold to that collection.

Despite winning 34 trophies with Barcelona, that Olympic gold was his only honour with Argentina for a long time - until 2021. It was then that the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner helped his nation win Copa America, a title that would be followed up a year later by a long-awaited World Cup. Messi then helped Argentina defend their continental crown in 2024, for a third major international title in four years.

If Argentina's attack in 2008 doesn't sound deadly enough with Riquelme and Messi, Angel Di Maria was also flying down the wing as Sergio Batista's side won Olympic gold. In fact, it was he who scored the only goal in the final in Beijing, just before the hour mark. That was his second of the tournament, his first having also been extremely significant as it secured an extra time victory over the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.

Like Messi, Di Maria had to wait a long time to taste success with Argentina on the biggest stage, despite racking up the trophies in spells with Benfica, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain. However, he too was part of the 2021 and 2024 Copa America squads, plus the 2022 World Cup triumph.

Also part of one of the most talented attacks the Olympic men's football tournament has ever seen was Sergio Aguero, who too played his part in Argentina's golden summer of 2008. It took until the semi-final stage for the future Manchester City star to get on the scoresheet but what a fixture to do it in - his two goals in six second half minutes put Argentina in a comfortable lead against rivals Brazil and one big step closer to the gold medal match.

Aguero was playing for Atletico Madrid at the time of Games, with whom he would win the Europa League and the UEFA Super Cup. In 2011, he joined Man City and won 15 trophies, with his iconic goal against QPR on the final day of the Premier League season the stand-out moment from an incredible 10-year spell. Aguero was able to be part of Argentina's Copa America triumph in 2021 but he would retire just a few months later, having been diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia.

Having watched bitter rivals Argentina win back-to-back gold medals in the noughties, Brazil were final able to match that achievement with success in 2016 and 2021. It wasn't easy to beat a Germany side that fielded the likes of Niklas Sule, Julian Brandt and Serge Gnabry in the 2016 final in Rio de Janeiro, but Brazil came through with a talented side of their own that included Gabriel Jesus, Rafinha and, the player who scored the decisive spot-kick in the shootout, Neymar.

Only the Germany duo of Gnabry and Nils Petersen netted more times than Neymar at Brazil's home tournament, as he got on the scoresheet in the quarter-final, semi-final and final to guide his nation to a first Olympic gold medal in men's football. It was a success that captivated a nation and saw the then-Barcelona star, who was one year removed from his big transfer to Paris Saint-Germain, further enhance his growing reputation.

Neymar may have been the star of Brazil's Olympic success in 2016 and it is the names in attack that catch the eye, but it was a triumph built on a strong defence and, as such, Marquinhos was absolutely crucial to it as well. The South American giants kept five clean sheets in six matches at Rio 2016, not conceding until they faced Germany in the final. When that gold medal match went to penalties, finishing 1-1 after extra time, Marquinhos was one of the five to step up and score in the shootout for the eventual champions, too.

Though still only 22 years old at the time, the defender could add Olympic gold to a trophy collection that already featured 10 major honours with PSG in France. In the eight years since, he's added another 20 and helped Brazil win the Copa America.