Cristiano Ronaldo
Portugal could take Cristiano Ronaldo to the 2016 Olympic Games as an overage player, according to the president of the Portuguese Football Federation.
According to Soccernet, Olympic rules permit each team to nominate three players born before January 1, 1993, in their squad for the football tournament in Rio de Janeiro, which will take place between August 3 and 20 next year.
That would mean Real Madrid star Ronaldo, 30, would be able to represent the senior side at Euro 2016, which runs from June 10 to July 10, before joining up with the Under-23 selection in Brazil, and FPF chief Fernando Gomes said it was under consideration.
“It is a possibility,” Gomes told Globoesporte. “We can bring three players aged over 23. Cristiano is one of those being considered, but we have not yet sat down to discuss it.”
Should Ronaldo travel to Brazil for the tournament, it would mean a busy schedule for a player who has been hampered by injury issues for much of the last 18 months.
Participation in the Olympics would also curtail Ronaldo’s participation in Madrid’s preseason tour and should Portugal reach the final – to be played on August 20 – he would likely miss the start of the 2016-17 La Liga season.
Ronaldo, then with Manchester United, had been part of the Portugal team that took part in the Olympics in August 2004, a month after he had lost the European Championship final to Greece with the senior team.
The Olympic side finished at the bottom of a group containing Iraq, Costa Rica and Morocco that year.
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