Olympics chief Lord Sebastian Coe predicts next year s event will provide the ideal stage for future football superstars.
Lord Coe, the head of London 2012, believes that next year’s competition will be an important stepping stone for the next generation of top footballers to follow in the footsteps of Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez.
While former England captain David Beckham is being tipped to lead the Great Britain team tilt at gold at London 2012 and Lille midfielder Joe Cole is keen to take part, young up-and-coming players from around the world will head to the United Kingdom, including Brazilian ace Neymar.
There may have been misgiving about the validity of football s place at the Olympics, but Lord Coe was adamant it will aid the development of rising stars as he helped launch the sale of tickets for football matches up and down England as part of London 2012.
I went to the Olympic final in Athens just as a fan and I watched Argentina against Paraguay in the final and Carlos Tevez was playing, basically making his international debut and Lionel Messi played in the 2008 final in Beijing, Coe told Goal.com.
So there is an extraordinary opportunity for young players and a lot of countries do use the Olympic tournament as a way of giving young players that tournament experience when it is probably less important in a way for them than their European or continental championships or even a World Cup.
It is a very good opportunity for players to actually understand the nature of knock-out competitions at international level and there aren t that many opportunities to do that.
If you look in the way a lot of the South American and European national sides use that as a way for young players to cut their teeth in an international arena.
Lord Coe extolled the virtues of Olympics football during a visit to Newcastle s St James Park stadium which will host eight matches next September.
He also reassured Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson over the value of the competition following the Scot s claim that those who figure at Euro 2012 must not take part in the Olympics.
Young United players Phil Jones and Chris Smalling are being tipped to represent team GB, while goalkeeper David De Gea is expected to play for Spain.
Lord Coe revealed he has discussed the issue with the United boss, and is convinced the experience will be beneficial.
Actually Alex is a believer in Olympic football and I have spoken to him about it. That is very clearly Alex wearing his Manchester United, Premier League manager s hat and I know some managers will inevitably do so, he said.
But this is about prioritising. There are a lot of players that would like to play in the Olympic Games and there are a lot of managers that think it is an important part of the development of a player.
