Three more medallists for FC Barcelona's collection

We don't know if they will be gold or silver, but we do know that Eric Garcia, Pau Cubarsí and Fermín López will be coming back from Paris with medals dangling around their necks. Spain are through to the men's football final against France on Friday, and that means Barça will be able to boast an all-time tally of 22 different Olympic medalists (Eric already has one from Tokyo 2020), who have contributed to 7 gold, 12 silver and one bronze.

Antwerp 1920

The first medals were won over 100 years ago, when Josep Samitier, Agustí Sancho, Fèlix Sesúmaga and Ricard Zamora were in the Spain team that finished second in the football competition, which in those days was somewhat akin to an unofficial World Cup.

Seoul 1988

Many years passed before the club had another medalist, and it happened when Aloisio Pires' Brazil finished as runners-up in the men's football competition in the South Korean capital.

Barcelona 1992

The year Barcelona itself hosted the games was also the first time the club had gold medalists. Albert Ferrer, Guardiola and Antonio Pinilla were all in the team that beat Poland to claim gold in front of a packed Camp Nou.

Year after year

After that, the medals started flowing thick and fast, with Barça footballers winning medals at almost every games. There was another Brazilian medalist in Atlanta 1996 in the form of a bronze for Ronaldo Nazario. At Sydney 2000, Gabri, Xavi and Puyol took silver, there was gold for Saviola and Argentina at Athens 2004, and for Messi at Beijing 2008 when their country retained the title. Then at Rio 2016, Neymar and Rafinha helped the host nation to yet more medals, and this time they were gold.

Tokyo 2020

The tradition was kept alive at the most recent games before Paris, when Eric Garcia, Pedri and Oscar Mingueza were in the silver-medal winning Spain squad, and Barça also got to celebrate its first ever women's football medal when Fridolina Rolfo and Sweden took silver.