LaLiga had more Olympians in Tokyo than any other league

Brazil beat Spain on Saturday, August 7, 2021 in the Gold Medal match to win the ultimate prize of the men's football event of the Olympics.

Spain took the Silver Medal while Mexico beat Japan to the Bronze Medal.

16 teams competed with 30 Spanish-based players with Spain packed with 20 exciting young talent that play their football in Spain.

Some of the most high-profile members of the Spain Olympics team include Getafe’s dynamic winger Marc Cucurella, Real Sociedad’s midfield metronome Mikel Merino, Real Madrid’s goalscoring wide man Marco Asensio and the Euro 2020 stars Unai Simón, Eric García, Pau Torres, Mikel Oyarzabal, Dani Olmo and Pedri.

Pedri even came into the Olympics after being named the Euro 2020 Young Player of the Tournament. 

In addition to the 20 Spaniards, there were another 10 LaLiga players at the tournament representing other countries. These are France’s Modibo Sagnan, Japan’s Takefusa Kubo, South Korea’s Kang-in Lee, Ivory Coast’s Idrissa Doumbia, Mexico’s Diego Lainez, Brazil’s Diego Carlos, Romania’s Alex Pașcanu and Andrei Rațiu and Argentina’s Jeremías Ledesma and Nehuén Pérez. 

No other league had this many representatives at the Olympic Games this year.

Looking at the other major leagues of Europe, there were 24 Germany-based players going, 23 from France, 16 from England and nine who ply their trade in Italy.

The 30 Spain-based players who competed in Japan come from 17 different clubs, with Athletic Club, FC Barcelona, Cádiz CF, RC Celta, SD Eibar, RCD Espanyol, Granada CF, Getafe CF, SD Huesca, CA Osasuna, SD Ponferradina, Real Betis, Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Sevilla FC, Valencia CF and Villarreal CF all having members of their 2020/21 squads at the Games. Of those clubs, it’s Real Sociedad who sent more players than any other team as Martín Zubimendi, Mikel Oyarzabal, Mikel Merino and Modibo Sagnan were all be present in Japan this summer.

With so many players at the tournament, there were some fascinating LaLiga battles in Japan.

For example, fans were able to see Takefusa Kubo go up against Diego Lainez when Japan faced Mexico in two games.

Then, when Spain played Argentina in the final round of group matches, there was a special moment for Granada fans as Spain’s captain Jesús Vallejo and the Albiceleste captain Nehuén Pérez led their respective sides out, after playing together at centre-back this past season in Andalusia.