PARIS, France — As the men's soccer tournament progresses at the Paris Olympics, many watching the games stop and wonder: Where are the world's biggest stars?
Players like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, and even France's favorite son -- Kylian Mbappé -- are nowhere to be found.
For the U.S. Men's National Team, who were in action against New Zealand on Saturday, that also means the absence of players like Christian Pulisic.
The reason for this is pretty simple, and largely has to do with how Olympic men's soccer rosters are allowed to be filled.
Why aren't players like Lionel Messi, Kyllian Mbappé, Christian Pulisic at Olympics?
That's because the Olympic men's tournament isn't like an ordinary senior men's tournament. It's mostly restricted to under-23 squads.
Each national team is, however, allowed to field three overage players. But because the tournament isn't considered on par with the World Cup or other prestigious regional tournaments like the European Championships or Copa América, which both just were held this summer, often national teams don't ask their most important players to fill those three overage spots.
That doesn't mean there aren't still good players at the Olympics.
France, for instance, has 33-year-old Alexandre Lacazette (a big-time goalscorer for Arsenal for many years) on their team. And Uzbekistan brought along 29-year-old Eldor Shomorudov, a longtime standout for several clubs in Italy's top league, Serie A.
The U.S., for their part, brought 31-year-old defender Walker Zimmerman (a Lawrenceville native), 27-year-old defender Miles Robinson and 25-year-old midfielder Djordje Mihailovic, all MLS veterans.
But for the most part teams stick to the U-23 spirit -- which still means some pretty significant players show up. Spain has 21-year-old Barcelona young star Fermín López on their roster, for instance. Atlanta United fans will also recognize 23-year-old Thiago Almada for Argentina.
Some of these players may turn out to be the biggest stars of the game down the road -- none other than a 21-year-old named Lionel Messi won a gold medal with Argentina at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
