4 months ago
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Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Egypt’s Mohamed Salah and Japan’s Wataru Endo had been speculated to be under consideration to represent their country’s in
Liverpool stars Mohamed Salah and Wataru Endo will not be joining their national teams for the 2024 Summer Olympic games from Paris, with the Egyptian superstar winger and Japan national team captain expected to instead be involved in the Reds’ pre-season preparations under new manager Arne Slot.
That’s the latest according to The Athletic, at least, who report that both players—as well as youngster Stefan Bajcetic, who had been an option for Spain but will stay with his club after an injury-hit 2023-24 season—won’t be called up despite heavy speculation previously that a club vs. country clash was coming.
At the end of the day, Olympic football isn’t a FIFA-sanctioned event and so clubs are under no obligation to release their players to take part in it, and with the tournament focused on U23 players with a few over-age stars in the mix for their experience the impact to clubs is minimal more often than not.
Given Salah’s standing in Egypt and Endo’s status as Japan captain, though, there had been plenty of talk the countries would pressure the players to be involved. In the end, then, it appears such pressure either never came to bear or was resisted with the federations deciding it wasn’t worth a fight.
