Arsenal winger Marquinhos helped Brazil to get off to a winning start at the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament on Tuesday with victory over Bolivia.
Earlier this month, Arsenal’s Marquinhos cancelled his loan to FC Nantes so he could play for Brazil at the ongoing Pre-Olympic Tournament.
“I spoke with the coach, with the president, I spoke about my desire to wear the national team’s shirt, about my dream of qualifying for the next Olympics and being there,” Marquinhos said then.
“I positioned myself within the club so I could be here and defend Brazil.”
With that in mind, it will be important to Marquinhos that his national team do well at the event.
In this qualifier for the summer Olympics, the Brazil u23s will initially feature in a group stage alongside Venezuela, Colombia, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
Each team will play the others once, with the top-two teams from the two groups qualifying for a second group stage of four teams.
The two teams that finish in the top two in the second stage will then qualify for the Olympics.
So from the 10 teams currently at the tournament across two groups, only two teams will make this summer’s Olympics.
There’s no room for error, and Brazil got off to a positive start with a 1-0 win over Bolivia on Tuesday. Marquinhos started the match, playing 56 minutes.
Next up, Brazil will take on Colombia on Friday, January 26th at 23:00 GMT.
Marquinhos had joined Ligue 1 club Nantes on a season-long loan in the summer transfer window, but the two clubs recently confirmed that he would be returning to the Gunners after ending his loan spell early.
The primary reason behind the decision was reportedly a dispute between Nantes and Marquinhos over his call-up for the Pre-Olympic Tournament.
The tournament kicked off on January 20th, and it lasts until at least February 1st. If Brazil make it to the second group stage, they’ll be playing matches until February 11th.
That would have meant another four weeks away from Nantes, with Marquinhos already having taken time off to win the Pan American Games with Brazil in November.
Nantes weren’t willing to accept that, so Marquinhos cancelled his loan to link up with Brazil.