Jiangnan Sports News, Ferran Torres is expected to represent the Spanish team in this year's Paris Olympics.
The Spanish Football Federation has contacted the Barcelona player to ask if he can be called up to the Paris Olympics this summer. And Phellan's answer was firm – a resounding "yes".
Why did the Spanish Football Federation contact him? The age limit for participation in this Olympic football tournament is players born after January 1, 2001, and Phelan was born in 2000. The same "injustice" happens every four years: some of the players who participated in the European Championships to help their teams qualify for the Olympics are unable to enjoy the sporting event due to age restrictions. Therefore, the Spanish Football Federation, which is preparing the pre-list, will ask those players over the age of 23 who may be called up to participate in the competition.
While Phelan was not part of the previous runners-up and Olympic qualification for Spain's Under-21 European Championships, the Spanish Football Federation considered him to be an overage player considering that he was already a regular in the senior national team and that he was part of the generation that won the Under-17 and Under-19 European Championships. A similar example is Asensio at the last Olympics.
Barcelona have a number of Olympic-age Spanish players in their squad, such as Balde, Eric Garcia, Pedri, Yamal and many more, as well as Gabi – although he struggled to prepare due to a serious knee injury. They will all be on the preliminaries, and according to the current sports law in Spain, Barcelona must release people to play.
However, Ferran's situation is slightly different, although Barcelona must also release him, but he has to occupy three overage places, so the Spanish Football Federation needs to make sure that if he is to be recruited, he himself is willing to go. The Spanish Football Federation adheres to one premise: it will not recruit anyone who does not want to go.