Surely we should have the best GB team? Wilshere's Olympic dream

Gold medalist? Wilshere wants to represent GB in 2012

Last week PFA Young Player of the Year Jack Wilshere said that “it would be a dream” to represent Great Britain in the 2012 London Olympics.

After Arsenal’s title challenge imploded with defeat at Bolton yesterday, maybe the 19-year-old midfielder thinks this is his only chance of getting any sort of medal in the near future. But Wilshere raises an interesting debate.


An England triumph aside, England’s Euro 2012 campaign in Poland and Ukraine will play second fiddle to the Olympics next summer and for two weeks football is not likely to be the British sports fans' number one focus.

That is for two reasons: firstly that the Olympics is mainly an under 23 tournament so a large group of the players competing have not yet made a name for themselves on the big stage. Having said that both Lionel Messi and Carlos Tevez have gold medals from winning with Argentina in 2004 and 2008 respectively, but a big portion of the athletes are unknowns.

Secondly, and probably more importantly, there has been no GB team since 1972. In Britain we don’t take such an active interest in the football competition because we have nobody to support in it. It looks likely to happen this year after the home nations agreed to the idea, and both Wilshere and Welsh PFA Player of the Year Gareth Bale could play alongside each other which would encourage us all to watch.

Football is the country’s national sport so with the Olympics in this country, surely we must have the best team possible?

The argument against Wilshere’s pleas is a practical one: burnout. Club manager Arsene Wenger has already said that for Wilshere playing in the 2011 Under 21 European Championships in Denmark in June will tire him out for a long hard season. So what about Euro 2012 in June and the Olympics in July and August next summer?

The FA have a rule that players cannot play in two summer tournaments between domestic seasons, so they are not tired. It could be argued that these are special circumstances as is it is not likely to see an Olympics in this country for years and years, so we should let Jack Wilshere go. But then he could make the same argument every four years – provided England keep qualifying for the Euros.

The FA, responsible for the Olympic Team, said that he would have a conversation with Wilshere and Arsene Wenger to see if it was feasible to play Wilshere in 2012. His inclusion could have a huge bearing on how many people want to watch the football tournament next summer, but the deadline for ticket applications is tomorrow, so it looks like that could be too late.