Paris Games 2024: Welcome to weird world of men's soccer at Olympics

Kylian Mbapp wanted to be there. France coach Thierry Henry wanted it too.

In the end, not even French President Emmanuel Macron could pull enough strings to free up his country's finest soccer player to compete in the Paris Games.

Welcome to the weird world of men's Olympic soccer.

The world's most popular sport occupies a strange space at the Games confused by compromises and contortions that appear designed to ensure it remains a part of the roster so long as it provides the least possible disruption to teams, players and authorities, whose priorities lie elsewhere.

It's become a complete mishmash over the years from being something that was quite important... to something that quite a lot of people would like scrapped because the calendar is so clogged up, soccer author Steve Menary told The Associated Press.

Men's soccer has been part of the Olympics since the 1900 Games, also in Paris. The only time it hasn't featured since then was in Los Angeles in 1932 to help promote th