Why isn’t Lamine Yamal playing for Spain against Egypt in 2024 Paris Olympics?

Spain bring the group stage to a close this afternoon in a battle for top spot in Group C with Egypt. Santi Denia’s team boast a flawless record at Paris 2024, posting wins against Uzbekistan and the Dominican Republic. A victory or a draw would be enough for La Roja to end as champions of the group and avoid one of the other big teams in the next round. The team that finishes first will meet the runners-up in Group D (Japan, Paraguay, Mali or Israel) with the team who ends behind them facing the winners.

Who’s in and who’s out of Spain’s Olympic squad

Due to Olympic rules and regulations, Denia was only able to list an 18-player squad for the tournament and of those, just three players over the age of 23. With those restrictions, he was only able to take four forwards and opted for Barcelona’s Fermín López, Braga’s Abel Ruiz, Valencia’s Diego López and Alavés’ Samu Omorodion.

So far, the move seems to be paying off. Spain have goal scorers throughout the team - the five goals scored in the first two group games at Paris 2024 have come from five different scorers. Many observers have asked why Barcelona winger Lamine Yamal isn’t at the Olympics. The 17-year-old was one of the stars of Spain’s Euro 2024 triumph, finding the net in the 2-1 semi-final win over France.

Lamine Yamal, one of the highlights of Barcelona’s season

Yamal was one of the sensations in LaLiga last season, scoring seven goals in 50 appearances for Barça. So why was he left out of the Olympic squad?

First of all, clubs are not obliged to release their players so that they can take part in the Olympic Games and secondly, Yamal has already had a busy summer having spent over a month with the national team, preparing for and starring in Euro 2024. For Spain, that tournament ended on 14 July and Santi Denia announced his Olympic squad list, without Yamal, four days earlier on 10 July.

Spain’s Olympic squad prepared for the Games with a friendly against the United States in Bordeaux on 17 July flew to Paris the following day, which meant that even if Yamal had been included in the list, he wouldn’t have had any time to rest.

Barcelona have already started the pre-season under new coach Hansi Flick and are currently in Orlando, preparing for the first friendly of the summer, against Manchester City tonight. Yamal, along with Barca’s other European champions Pedri and Ferran Torres, was not included in the 31-player travelling squad. He is expected to return for the Trofeo Gamper clash with Monaco on 12 August.