S’Falcons’ Stars Omitted, Brazil’s Marta, Three Africans Listed Among 10 Footballers to Watch at Paris 2024

 Femi Solaja with agency report

No member of the Super Falcons’ players was listed among players that will make a major mark in the forthcoming football event at the Paris Olympic Games that will get underway during the week.

A major news outlet, BBC, in its analysis, did not consider multiple ‘African Women Footballer of the Year’ recipient, Asisat Oshoola nor any other member of the team but named Brazil’s woman footballer, Marta among 10 players tipped for glory at the football event of the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Nigeria’s Super Falcons are billed to face Brazil in one of the opening matches of the Olympics and later play Spain and Japan.

BBC focused on the just concluded Euro 2024 and the Copa America in picking most of the players expected to excel. Apart from Marta, three Africans are also in focus. They are Achraf Hakimi of Morocco and Naby Keita of Guinea among the men and Barbra Banda, a woman footballer from Zambia.  

The Paris 2024 action starts on Wednesday, with matches taking place in seven cities across France. Both the men’s and women’s finals will be played in Paris at Parc des Princes.

Men’s Olympic squads are made up of under-23 players, with up to three overage players allowed, while women’s squads have no age restrictions.

From Lionel Messi to Alex Morgan, Ronaldinho to Ellen White, some of the world’s biggest names have played football at the Olympics over the years. The big names expected to excel are: Marta (Brazil) who is the country’s all-time leading goal scorer Marta will bid farewell to international football after captaining her country in Paris.

The 38-year-old is planning to retire from national team duty, but after winning a silver medal at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, she wants one last shot at the gold.

Achraf Hakimi is another big-name player to have been cleared to represent his country at the Olympics.

The 25-year-old will miss Paris St-Germain’s pre-season preparations as Morocco prepare to play at a summer Games for the eighth time.

Also listed is the former Liverpool midfielder Naby Keita will captain Guinea as they make only their second appearance at an Olympics.

The Champions League winner had a poor first season in the Bundesliga with Werder Bremen, playing just five times because of injury and suspension.

The 29-year-old is one of the biggest names at the Games and will hope to add to his tally of 11 goals for his country.

Barbra Banda is the only African women football star listed. She became the second-most expensive women’s footballer in history when she joined Orlando Pride from Chinese club Shanghai Shengli in March.

Banda, 24, has justified her price tag since joining the NWSL outfit, and became the first player in the history of the division to score 11 goals in their first 11 games.

Julian Alvarez (Argentina) howwasFresh from their Copa America triumph, Argentina are the favourites to win the men’s gold medal in Paris.

Along with Nicolas Otamendi and Geronimo Rulli, Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez is one of Argentina’s three overage players in the squad as Javier Mascherano looks to coach the country to their third gold medal.

The 24-year-old scored 11 goals in 36 appearances for Pep Guardiola’s side last season as they won a fourth successive Premier League title.

Alvarez will miss City’s pre-season tour of the United States and the Community Shield match against Manchester United, which takes place the day after the gold medal match.

Others are Alexandre Lacazette (France) whom Thierry Henry has selected to captain France at their home Games.

“We all have the same ambition, to go all the way and win a medal,” the 33-year-old said. “The fact that it’s a home Games is really going to motivate us.”

The Lyon forward hasn’t played for his country since 2017 but scored 22 goals in 35 games for the Ligue 1 club last season, showing he is still in good form.

Asisat Oshoala’s former teammate at Barcelona Femini, Aitana Bonmati  will represent Spain but have never had a women’s team at the Olympics before but they head to Paris as one of the favourites.

The reigning world champions have lost only twice in 14 matches since beating England in last August’s World Cup final.

The rest are Wendie Renard (France), Fermin Lopez (Spain) and Linda Caicedo (Colombia) completed the 10-man list.