One gold, three silvers and 104 years of Spanish Olympic football

The history of Spanish football at the Olympic Games has left us with memorable and magical moments, from a silver medal debut to the "quinta del Cobi" gold medal, with the occasional swift early exit and the historic qualification of the women's national team for Paris 2024.

Before pulling the heartstrings with a moving journey through the history of great moments of Spanish football at the Olympics, we should point out that throughout the eleven participations in the men's category there have been up to three different national teams that have taken part. At the beginning it was the Senior team, before giving way in 1948 to an "amateur" team and finally to the current Under-23 team that has represented us since Barcelona 1992. Well, after a start in which the professionalisation of football was very unequal in different countries, FIFA and the IOC restricted access to professional footballers in order to avoid unbalanced competition. They did not want to overshadow the "World Cup" and they wanted to make it more competitive.

Let's go back in time... more than a century ago. Antwerp, 1920. The Spanish national football team made its debut in the Olympic Games with a team led by the young coach Paco Bru. The former Barcelona goalkeeper put together a list of 19 players who would go on to make history: Zamora (Barcelona), Arrate (Real Sociedad), Vallana (Arenas de Guecho), Sesúmaga (Barcelona), Belauste (Athletic de Bilbao), Eguiazábal (Real Unión de Irún), Pichichi (Athletic de Bilbao), Acedo (Athletic de Bilbao), Pagaza (Arenas de Guecho), Patricio (Real Unión de Irún), Samitier (Barcelona), Eizaguirre (Real Sociedad), Artola (Real Sociedad), Sancho (Barcelona), Moncho Gil (Vigo Sporting), Sabino (Athletic de Bilbao), Otero (Vigo Sporting), Vázquez (Racing de Ferrol) and Silverio (Real Sociedad).

pain’s first attempts at the Olympics were rather curious. Spain lost in the quarter-finals to Belgium 3-1. And although they would theoretically be eliminated, the tournament created a kind of "consolation" for runners-up. In the first round, Spain beat Sweden 2-1 and Italy 0-2. France and Czechoslovakia refused to play, were disqualified and the Spanish team and the Netherlands played "a final" at the Antwerp Olympic Stadium, which Spain won with a Sesúmaga brace and a goal from Pichichi. It was Spain's first participation and they won their first medal: a silver.

The Senior National Team would represent Spain in the following two Olympic Games without much luck. In Paris 2024, the "Spanish Fury" led by coach Pedro Parages, former president of Real Madrid, were eliminated in the first round, finishing fourteenth and knocked out at the first hurdle by Italy. In Amsterdam 1928, with the Spanish Football League about to be founded and wanting to get rid of the thorn in their side after the failure of the previous edition, José Ángel Berraondo's team finished fifth and were eliminated in the most painful way, with a 7-1 defeat by Italy, the heaviest Spanish defeat in our entire Olympic history.

After a few years of absence, the national team returned to the Olympic Games in Mexico 68. And this time it did so with a team of "amateur" players (at that time) with names that would later form part of the history of football such as Goyo Benito and Asensi and this team came sixth.

This same idea of teams with non-professional players or players who did not play in the World Cup continued during the following editions. For Montreal 1976, under the leadership of Ladislao Kubala, this "amateur" national team was made up of players who were emerging such as Arconada, Juan Gómez Juanito, Olmo, Saura, Idígoras and Migueli. Their Olympic participation was nothing to write home about, coming thirteenth. Moscow 80 left us with the image of Buyo, Marcos Alonso or Poli Rincón as young amateur footballers coached by José Emilio Santamaría, defending the Spanish colours in an Olympic Games in which they could only finish tenth. 

Twelve years later and with the U-23 teams now competing in Olympic tournaments, Spain, as hosts of the Barcelona '92 Olympics, experienced its greatest success to date: Olympic gold.

Vicente Miera, former Madrid player from the mythical ‘yeyé’ generation, made up a squad of the following 20 players: Toni Jiménez (Figueres), Ferrer (Barcelona), Berges (Tenerife), Solozábal (Atlético de Madrid), Abelardo (Sporting de Gijón), Lasa (Real Madrid), Guardiola (Barcelona), Soler (Mallorca), Kiko (Cádiz), Luis Enrique (Real Madrid), Alfonso (Real Madrid), Cañizares (Mérida), López (Atlético de Madrid), Amavisca (Lleida), Miguel (Rayo Vallecano), Vidal (Mallorca), Billabona (Athletic Club), Pinilla (Barcelona), Manjarín (Sporting de Gijón) and Paqui (Tenerife).

Their record at the Games went on to be impeccable. Solid and serious victories against Colombia, Egypt, Qatar led to Italy in the quarter-finals, Ghana in the semi-finals... all the way to the final, where they had to face a tough Poland at the Camp Nou. When it seemed that the match was heading for extra time, 2-2, in the 90th minute Kiko appeared to make it 3-2 and lift the 95,000 people in the stadium from their seats to witness something historic: Spain won gold, Spain was Olympic Champion on home soil at Barcelona 92.

After the resounding success of Barcelona 92, much was expected for Atlanta 96. Expectations were set on retaining the gold medal and the national team, with coach Javier Clemente at the helm, had names of the highest quality to help achieve it: Karanka, Santi Denia, Raúl, De la Peña, Mendieta and Morientes among others. But they came up against the Argentina of Simeone, "Piojo" López, Zanetti and Ayala who, with a convincing 4-0 win, knocked us out of medal contention.

The dream had not been lost at the turn of the millennium. Sydney 2000 was another great success for Spanish Olympic football. Iñaki Sáez led the 18 players to the silver medal. Marchena, Aranzubía, Puyol, Xavi, Tamudo, Capdevila... these players not only began to mark an era with the Olympic silver medal, but some of them would later go on to make Spanish football history, including the European Championships and the World Cup.

Spain returned to the final of an Olympic Games and did so 8 years after winning in Barcelona, this time against Samuel Eto'o's Cameroon. As at the Camp Nou, the score was 2-2, but this time there was no goal before extra time. In fact, the score remained 2-2 after added time and it all went to penalties. The Cameroonians were the lucky ones and Spain went on to win the silver medal, the second in their history, after the one they had won in Antwerp 80 years earlier.

Spain has the "Quinta del Cobi" (mascot of Barcelona 92) and also the "Quinta del Covid", a team that won another silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Games, held in 2021 because of the Covid pandemic.

In the years before Tokyo, Spain had not qualified for the Olympics for 12 years. They made it again for London 2012, where they were also one of the favourites with players who had been European Under-21 champions and it was the golden years of the Senior team, European champions in 2008, World champions in 2010 and European champions again in 2012. However, the "Rojita" with coach Luis Milla and players of the stature of Isco, Javi Martínez, Koke, Mata, De Gea and Muniain, among them, were sent packing without scoring a single goal in the first round.

2020 was a year that changed life as we knew it. Tokyo 2020 took place a year later, in empty stadiums, with masks and protections. In these circumstances, led by the current national coach, Luis de la Fuente, the players who had just won the European Under-19 Championships in 2015 and the European Under-21 Championships in 2019, with Vallejo, Unai Simón, Cucurella, Pau Torres, Zubimendi, Mikel Merino, Marco Asensio, Pedri, Oyarzabal or Dani Olmo among others, managed to make history again, winning another medal for the Spanish Olympic football trophy cabinet: the third silver. Sound familiar? Many of those Olympic silver medallists, including the coach, are currently fighting for the European Championships in Germany with the Spanish national team.

Spain lost that final to Brazil 2-1 in the empty Yokohama International Stadium.

This is what it was like in the final of the Tokyo Olympics

Images from the final against Brazil

Now Paris 2024 awaits, exactly 100 years after the French capital hosted the Olympic Games in 1924, and Santi Denia and his boys are hoping to build on their successes and win more medals for the Spanish Olympic football trophy cabinet in what will be the men's national team's twelfth participation in the Games.

SANTI DENIA'S SQUAD FOR PARIS 2024

And if we remember Paris 2024 for anything, whatever happens on the pitch, it will be because it will be the first participation in the history of the women's national team in an Olympic Games.

SEE THE CELEBRATIONS AT QUALIFICATION FOR THE OLYMPICS

Montse Tomé's side made history by beating the Netherlands at La Cartuja in the semi-finals of the UEFA Women's Nations League, a tournament they went on to win against France. The World Cup winners will travel to the French capital with enormous enthusiasm, hungry to make history and continue to mark an unforgettable era for Spanish women's football.

THIS IS MONTSE TOMÉ'S SQUAD FOR PARIS 2024

For the first time in history we have two representatives in the football competition at the Olympic Games, double medal possibilities for a country that breathes, feels, loves and lives FOOTBALL, with capital letters.

MEN'S NATIONAL TEAM’S RECORD AT THE OLYMPICS