Men's Olympic football tournament records and statistics

This is a list of records and statistics of the football tournament in the Olympic games ever since the inaugural official edition in 1908.[1]

Medal table

• Bronze medals shared in 1972 tournament

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Hungary	3	1	1	5
2	Great Britain	3	0	0	3
3	Brazil	2	3	2	7
4	Spain	2	3	0	5
5	Argentina	2	2	0	4
6	Soviet Union (URS)	2	0	3	5
7	Uruguay	2	0	0	2
8	Yugoslavia (YUG)	1	3	1	5
9	France	1	2	0	3
	Poland	1	2	0	3
11	East Germany (GDR)	1	1	1	3
	Nigeria	1	1	1	3
13	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	1	1	0	2
14	Italy	1	0	2	3
	Sweden	1	0	2	3
16	Belgium	1	0	1	2
	Mexico	1	0	1	2
18	Cameroon	1	0	0	1
	Canada	1	0	0	1
20	Denmark	0	3	1	4
21	Bulgaria	0	1	1	2
	United States	0	1	1	2
23	Austria	0	1	0	1
	Germany	0	1	0	1
	Paraguay	0	1	0	1
	Switzerland	0	1	0	1
27	Netherlands	0	0	3	3
28	Chile	0	0	1	1
	Ghana	0	0	1	1
	Japan	0	0	1	1
	Morocco	0	0	1	1
	Norway	0	0	1	1
	South Korea	0	0	1	1
	United Team of Germany (EUA)	0	0	1	1
	West Germany (FRG)	0	0	1	1
Totals (35 entries)		28	28	29	85

Top scorers by tournament

Year	Player(s)	Goals
1900	Gaston Peltier John Nicholas	2
1904	Alexander Hall Tom Taylor	3
1908	Sophus Nielsen	11
1912	Gottfried Fuchs	10
1920	Herbert Karlsson	7
1924	Pedro Petrone	7
1928	Domingo Tarasconi	11
1936	Annibale Frossi	7
1948	John Hansen Gunnar Nordahl	7
1952	Rajko Mitić Branko Zebec	7
1956	Neville D'Souza Todor Veselinović Dimitar Milanov	4
1960	Harald Nielsen	8
1964	Ferenc Bene	12
1968	Kunishige Kamamoto	7
1972	Kazimierz Deyna	9
1976	Andrzej Szarmach	6
1980	Sergey Andreyev	5
1984	Borislav Cvetković Stjepan Deverić Daniel Xuereb	5
1988	Romário	7
1992	Andrzej Juskowiak	7
1996	Bebeto Hernán Crespo	6
2000	Iván Zamorano	6
2004	Carlos Tevez	8
2008	Giuseppe Rossi	4
2012	Leandro Damião	6
2016	Serge Gnabry Nils Petersen	6
2020	Richarlison	5
2024	Soufiane Rahimi	8

Records

Starting with the first official football tournament in London in 1908, Denmark's Sophus Nielsen and Hungary's Antal Dunai share the record for the most total goals scored by a player in tournament history. Both have 13 goals: Nielsen scored 11 goals in 1908 and two in 1912, and Dunai scored six in 1968 and seven in 1972. Ferenc Bene holds the record for the most goals scored by a player in a single Olympics tournament, scoring 12 goals in the 1964 edition. Sophus Nielsen and Gottfried Fuchs share the record for most goals scored in a single Olympic match at 10. Nielson achieved that in the semi-final match against France in 1908, and Fuchs did so in the first-round match against Russia in the 1912 consolation tournament.

Neymar scored the fastest goal in a men's Olympic football match in history, 14 seconds into the semi-final match against Honduras on 17 August 2016.[2]

All-time top scorers

The all-time top goalscorers with at least 7 goals (since 1908)

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Sophus Nielsen	Denmark	13
	Antal Dunai	Hungary	13
3	Ferenc Bene	Hungary	12
4	Domingo Tarasconi	Argentina	11
	Pedro Petrone	Uruguay	11
6	Gottfried Fuchs	Germany	10
	Kazimierz Deyna	Poland	10
8	Harold Walden	Great Britain	9
	Vilhelm Wolfhagen	Denmark	9
10	Jan Vos	Netherlands	8
	Hector Scarone	Uruguay	8
	Carlos Tevez	Argentina	8
	Bebeto	Brazil	8
	Harald Nielsen	Denmark	8
	Ibrahim Reyadh	Egypt	8
	Soufiane Rahimi	Morocco	8
17	John Hansen	Denmark	7
	Anthon Olsen	Denmark	7
	Gunnar Nordahl	Sweden	7
	Annibale Frossi	Italy	7
	Vilhelm Wolfhagen	Denmark	7
	Herbert Carlsson	Sweden	7
	Branko Zebec	Yugoslavia	7
	Milan Galić	Yugoslavia	7
	Kunishige Kamamoto	Japan	7
	Andrzej Juskowiak	Poland	7
	Romario	Brazil	7
	Neymar	Brazil	7

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of men's Olympic football tournament hat-tricks

Since the first official tournament in 1908 in England, 99 hat-tricks have been scored in over 1,000 matches of the 28 editions of the tournament.^[citation needed]

Teams: tournament position

Teams having equal quantities in the tables below are ordered by the tournament the quantity was attained in (the teams that attained the quantity first are listed first). If the quantity was attained by more than one team in the same tournament, these teams are ordered alphabetically.

Most titles won

3,  Great Britain (1900, 1908, 1912);  Hungary (1952, 1964, 1968).

Most finishes in the top two

5,  Brazil (1984, 1988, 2012, 2016, 2020),  Spain (1920, 1992, 2000, 2020, 2024)

Most finishes in the top three

7,  Brazil (1984, 1988, 1996, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020).

Most finishes in the top four

8,  Brazil (1976, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020).

Most appearances

15,  Italy (1912, 1920, 1924, 1928, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1960, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008).
15,  United States (1904, 1924, 1928, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1972, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2024).

Consecutive

Most consecutive medals

4,  Yugoslavia (1948–52–56–60); Hungary (1960–64–68–72);  Brazil (2008–12–16–20).

Most consecutive golds

2,  Great Britain (1908–12);[a]  Uruguay (1924–28);  Hungary (1964–68);  Argentina (2004–08);  Brazil (2016–20).

Most consecutive silvers

3,  Yugoslavia (1948–52–56).

Most consecutive bronzes

3,  Netherlands (1908–12–20).

Most consecutive top three finishes

3,  Soviet Union (1972–1980).[b]

Most consecutive championships by a confederation

13, UEFA, (1936–1992).

Most consecutive matches won

12,  Argentina (2004–2008), six in each tournament.

Most consecutive appearances

9,  South Korea (1988–2020)

Gaps

Longest gap between titles

32 years,  Soviet Union (1956–1988).

Longest gap between appearances in the top two

72 years,  Spain (1920–1992).

Host team

Best finish by host team

Champion:  Great Britain (1908);  Belgium (1920);  Spain (1992);  Brazil (2016).

Other

Most finishes in the top two without ever being champion

3,  Denmark (1908, 1912, 1960).

Most finishes in the top three without ever being champion

4,  Denmark (1908, 1912, 1948, 1960).

Most finishes in the top four without ever being champion

4,  Netherlands (1908, 1912, 1920, 1924);  Denmark (1908, 1912, 1948, 1960).

Teams: matches played and goals scored

All time

Most matches played

66,  Brazil.

Most wins

38,  Brazil.

Most losses

23,  Italy.

Most draws

13,  South Korea.

Most goals scored

134,  Brazil.

Most goals conceded

102,  Serbia.

Fewest goals conceded

1,  Estonia.

Individual

Most matches played, finals

13, Dezső Novák ( Hungary, 1960–1968); Antal Dunai ( Hungary, 1964–1972); Lajos Szűcs ( Hungary, 1968–1972); Miklós Páncsics ( Hungary, 1968–1972).

Players who won Summer Olympics and FIFA World Cup

Player	Team	Gold medal	FIFA World Cup
José Leandro Andrade	Uruguay	1924 1928	1930
Pedro Cea
José Nasazzi
Pedro Petrone
Héctor Scarone
Santos Urdinarán
Peregrino Anselmo		1928
Héctor Castro
Lorenzo Fernández
Álvaro Gestido
Domingo Tejera
Alfredo Foni	Italy	1936	1938
Sergio Bertoni
Ugo Locatelli
Pietro Rava
Ángel Di María	Argentina	2008	2022
Lionel Messi

Goalscoring

Individual

Most goals scored, overall finals

13, Sophus Nielsen ( Denmark), 1908–1912; Antal Dunai ( Hungary), 1964-1972.

Most goals scored in a tournament

12, Ferenc Bene ( Hungary), 1964.

Most goals scored in a match

10, Sophus Nielsen ( Denmark), vs France, 1908; Gottfried Fuchs ( Germany), vs Russia, 1912.

First goalscorer

Nils Middelboe ( Denmark), vs France, 19 October 1908.

Youngest goalscorer

16 years, 332 days, Ángel Uribe ( Peru), vs France, 26 August 1960.

Oldest goalscorer

38 years, 243 days, Ryan Giggs ( Great Britain), vs United Arab Emirates, 29 July 2012.

Team

Most goals scored in a match, one team

17,  Denmark vs  France, 1908.

Most goals scored in a match, both teams

18,  Denmark (17) vs  France (1), 1908.

Highest scoring draw

5–5,  Soviet Union vs  Yugoslavia, 1952.

Fewest goals conceded in a tournament

0,  Argentina in Athens 2004

Tournament

Most goals scored in a tournament

135 goals, 1952; 1972.

Fewest goals scored in a tournament

48 goals, 1908.

Most goals per match in a tournament

8.00 goals per match, 1908.

Fewest goals per match in a tournament

2.34 goals per match, 2008.

Winning managers

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1904	Louis Blake Duff	Joe Lydon	None
1908	Alfred Davis	Charlie Williams	Edgar Chadwick
1912	Adrian Birch	Charlie Williams	Edgar Chadwick
1920	Raoul Daufresne de la Chevalerie	Francisco Bru	Frederick Warburton
1924	Ernesto Fígoli	Edward Duckworth	József Nagy
1928	Primo Gianotti	José Lago Millan	Augusto Rangone
1936	Vittorio Pozzo	Jimmy Hogan	Asbjørn Halvorsen
1948	George Raynor	Milorad Arsenijević	Reg Mountford
1952	Gusztáv Sebes	Milorad Arsenijević	George Raynor
1956	Gavriil Kachalin	Milovan Ćirić	Stoyan Ormandzhiev & Krum Milev
1960	Aleksandar Tirnanić	Arne Sørensen	Béla Volentik
1964	Károly Lakat	Rudolf Vytlačil	Károly Sós
1968	Károly Lakat	Georgi Berkov	Ken Naganuma
1972	Kazimierz Górski	Rudolf Illovszky	Georg Buschner
			Aleksandr Ponomarev
1976	Georg Buschner	Kazimierz Górski	Valeriy Lobanovskyi
1980	František Havránek	Rudolf Krause	Konstantin Beskov
1984	Henri Michel	Jair Picerni	Ivan Toplak
1988	Anatoliy Byshovets	Carlos Alberto Silva	Hannes Löhr
1992	Vicente Miera	Janusz Wójcik	Sam Arday
1996	Jo Bonfrère	Daniel Passarella	Mário Zagallo
2000	Jean-Paul Akono	Iñaki Sáez	Nelson Acosta
2004	Marcelo Bielsa	Carlos Jara	Claudio Gentile
2008	Sergio Batista	Samson Siasia	Dunga
2012	Luis Fernando Tena	Mano Menezes	Hong Myung-bo
2016	Rogério Micale	Horst Hrubesch	Samson Siasia
2020	André Jardine	Luis de la Fuente	Jaime Lozano
2024	Santi Denia	Thierry Henry	Tarik Sektioui

Managers who won Summer Olympics and FIFA World Cup

Manager	Team	Gold medal	FIFA World Cup
Vittorio Pozzo	Italy	1936	1934, 1938

Discipline

Most sendings off (all-time, team)

6,  Italy,  Morocco,  Spain.

Most cautions (all-time, team)

91,  Italy.

Attendance

Highest average of attendance per match

47,660, 2012.

Lowest average of attendance per match

3,333, 1908.

Footnotes

1. Although Great Britain won the 1900 competition, this is not recognized by FIFA.
2. Although UEFA was founded in 1954, its records include all European teams which become UEFA members.

References

1. "Olympic football records: Dunai's goals, USA's dominance and Brazil's medal collection". 16 August 2021. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
2. "Video: Watch Neymar net the fastest goal in Olympic history to take host nation Brazil into football final". 18 August 2016. Archived from the original on 31 August 2016. Retrieved 19 August 2016.

See also

• List of men's Olympic football tournament hat-tricks
• List of women's Olympic football tournament records