The football calendar never stops, and as we end the Euro fiesta, the 2020 Olympics is on the horizon and with it, a chance for young international footballers to show their talents and make a name for themselves on a big stage. Although often derided in the UK as a football tournament, many big footballing nations take pride in their Olympic football performances, and the likes of Brazil and Spain will be bringing out their star talents and upcoming superstars to do the business and compete for a medal.

Therefore, with this tournament kicking off shortly, we’ve found 3 players that we are very excited to watch in the tournament and will certainly be keeping an eye on throughout. These 3 are likely names you have heard of before, but with an impressive showing in the Olympic competition, they may become more familiar and household names before you know it.

If you’ve got your eye on anyone at the Olympics and think we should add them to our list, let us know over on Twitter (@NextGoalWinBlog), and when they win the Balon d’Or you can claim ‘I heard of them first’.

Takefusa Kubo

Kubo is an exciting talent, and a youngster with many interested parties. Originally scouted for Barcelona, their transfer embargo meant the move never came to fruition, and instead rivals Real Madrid snapped up the exciting Japanese attacking-midfielder. As the main superstar for Japanese football currently, Kubo will likely want to impress in his home Olympics, and given how he has impressed on his loan moves around La Liga for Mallorca, Villarreal and Getafe, he might just be about to get his deserved shot in the Madrid side. At only 20, he seems to be a player that fans and pundits have spoken about for years, and there is so much potential from the young man who has many interested clubs. With Madrid not having perhaps the strongest journey to the first team for youngsters like Kubo, a summer move may well be on the cards with a strong showing in the Tokyo summer sporting spectacular.

Bryan Gil

The 20 year old winger has got several big European suitors lined up this summer, and an impressive Olympic campaign could add a few zeros to that move. The Sevilla youngster has worked his way from the B team to the first team, however has only played 14 games for the first team, and spent the last 2 seasons on loan at Leganes and Eibar respectively.

Gil is an interesting player to watch, as Spain’s main men’s team is undergoing a transition phase, and so his summer and performances at Tokyo may well have him knocking on the door of the first XI more frequently after his 2 cameos earlier in the year. With a Europa League medal to his name and an U19 Euro’s Championship in his collection, many are expecting and predicting an Olympic gold to add to this growing CV.

Dani Alves

Continuing our trend of current/former La Liga players, our final ‘one to watch’ for the 2020 Olympics really needs no introduction, Mr Dani Alves. Alves has won just about everything in football during his remarkable career, and an Olympic gold would help the 38 year old see out his international career in some style. With reigning champions Brazil looking strong ahead of the tournament, it will be fascinating to see the original wing-back on the main stage once again after disappearing from European eyes to Sao Paulo over the last few seasons. The word from Brazil is that Alves is still capable of being a useful and key member of the squad, and with youngsters around him taking their chance, having Dani Alves as the ‘experienced head’ is a genius decision from Andre Jardine to feature the former Barcelona man. Oh, and did we mention that he had also become an attacking midfielder for Sao Paulo, so expect potentially a slightly different Dani Alves than what you may remember, but still damn entertaining.