Football at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament
The men's football tournament at the 2008 Summer Olympics was held in Beijing and four other cities in the People's Republic of China from 7 August to 23 August. Associations affiliated with FIFA were invited to enter their men's under-23 teams in regional qualifying competitions, from which 15 teams, plus the host nation, reached the final tournament. Men's teams were allowed to augment their squads with up to three players over the age of 23.
For these Games, the men competed in a 16-team tournament. Preliminary matches commenced on 7 August, the day before the Games' opening ceremony. The teams were grouped into four pools of four teams each for a round-robin preliminary round. The top two teams in each pool advanced to an eight-team single-elimination bracket.
The tournament was won by Argentina, who beat Nigeria 1-0 in the final, as part of a record streak of 12 consecutive wins in football competitions at the Summer Olympics.
Qualification
A National Olympic Committee may enter one men's team in football competitions.Squads
For the men's tournament, each nation submitted a squad of 18 players, 15 of whom had to be born on or after 1 January 1985, and three of whom could be overage players, by 23 July 2008. A minimum of two goalkeepers had to be included in the squad.Match officials
On 22 April 2008, FIFA released the list of match referees that will officiate at the Olympics.| Confederation | Referee | Assistants |
| AFC | Khalil Al Ghamdi | Mohammed Al Ghamdi Hamdi Al Kadrie |
| AFC | Abdullah Al Hilali | Khaled Al Allan Saleh Al Marzouqi |
| AFC | Masoud Moradi | Hassan Kamranifar Luay Subhi Adib |
| CAF | Jerome Damon | Enock Molefe Célestin Ntagungira |
| CAF | Badara Diatta | Bechir Hassani Evarist Menkouande |
| CONCACAF | Roberto Moreno | Daniel Williamson Hairo Fuentes |
| CONCACAF | Jair Marrufo | Kermit Quisenberry Ricardo Morgan |
| CONMEBOL | Héctor Baldassi | Ricardo Casas Hernán Maidana |
| CONMEBOL | Pablo Pozo | Patricio Basualto Julio Díaz |
| CONMEBOL | Martín Vázquez | Mauricio Espinosa Miguel Nievas |
| OFC | Michael Hester | Tevita Makasini Michael Joseph |
| UEFA | Thomas Einwaller | Roland Heim Norbert Schwab |
| UEFA | Viktor Kassai | Gábor Erős Tibor Vámos |
| UEFA | Stéphane Lannoy | Eric Dansault Frédéric Cano |
| UEFA | Damir Skomina | Primož Arhar Marco Stancin |
| UEFA | Wolfgang Stark | Jan-Hendrik Salver Volker Wezel |
All times are China Standard Time.
Group stage
Group winners and runners-up advanced to the quarter-finals.Group A
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Group B
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Group C
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Group D
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Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
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Semi-finals
----Bronze medal match
Gold medal match
Final ranking
| Rank | Team | ||||||||
| 1 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 2 | +9 | 18 | |
| 2 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 4 | +6 | 13 | |
| 3 | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 3 | +11 | 15 | |
| 4 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 7 | 10 | –3 | 9 | |
| 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 3 | +5 | 7 | |
| 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 6 | |
| 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 5 | |
| 8 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | –1 | 5 | |
| 9 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| 10 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 4 | |
| 11 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 1 | |
| 12 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 7 | −4 | 1 | |
| 13 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | −5 | 1 | |
| 14 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | –6 | 1 | |
| 15 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | –3 | 0 | |
| 16 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 5 | –5 | 0 |
Statistics
Goalscorers
With four goals, Giuseppe Rossi of Italy was the top scorer in the tournament. In total, 75 goals were scored by 53 different players, with only one of them credited as own goal.;4 goals
- Giuseppe Rossi
;2 goals
- Sergio Agüero
- Ezequiel Lavezzi
- Ángel Di María
- Lionel Messi
- Kevin Mirallas
- Diego
- Jô
- Thiago Neves
- Ronaldinho
- Rafael Sóbis
- Sekou Cissé
- Salomon Kalou
- Gerald Sibon
- Chinedu Obasi
- Sacha Kljestan
- Lautaro Acosta
- Diego Buonanotte
- Juan Román Riquelme
- Ruben Zadkovich
- Laurent Ciman
- Faris Haroun
- Anderson
- Hernanes
- Marcelo
- Alexandre Pato
- Georges Mandjeck
- Stéphane Mbia
- Dong Fangzhuo
- Robert Acquafresca
- Sebastian Giovinco
- Riccardo Montolivo
- Tommaso Rocchi
- Gervinho
- Yohei Toyoda
- Kim Dong-jin
- Park Chu-young
- Ryan Babel
- Otman Bakkal
- Jeremy Brockie
- Olubayo Adefemi
- Victor Anichebe
- Peter Odemwingie
- Chibuzor Okonkwo
- Isaac Promise
- Miljan Mrdaković
- Slobodan Rajković
- Đorđe Rakić
- Jozy Altidore
- Stuart Holden
- Slobodan Rajković