The history of football tournaments at the Olympics began 124 years ago — and it was in France. This sport was first included in the Olympic Games program in 1900. After that tournament in Paris, football was present at all subsequent Games except for the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (USA).

In 1900, three clubs participated in the football competitions — from France, Belgium, and Great Britain. The British were the first Olympic champions. From the 1908 Games in London onwards, only national teams have taken part.

The number of participants in the football tournament at various Olympics varied between five and twenty-five, and it was not until the 1960 Summer Olympics that the format of the competition was changed and the number of participants limited. From that point on, instead of a knockout stage involving sixteen teams, they were divided into four groups of four teams each, playing one match against each other within their group. And then thebest from each group advanced to the knockout stage.

Professional players were allowed to compete in the Summer Olympics starting with the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, but only those from Asia, Africa, CONCACAF, and Oceania. The ban was lifted completely in 1992, at which time partial age restrictions for players were introduced — they had to be no older than 23 years old. Since 1996, each team has been allowed three players of any age, with the rest being under 23.

The leader in the official medal tally for men's football tournaments at the Olympic Games is Hungary (3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze). In second place — Great Britain (3 gold), and third — Brazil (2 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze). However, by total number of medals, Brazil leads with seven.

The top scorers in men's football tournaments at the Olympics are Antal Dunai (Hungary, 1968, 1972) and Sophus Nielsen (Denmark, 1908, 1912) — each with 13 goals. Third place goes to Ferenc Bene (Hungary, 1964) — 12.

Players such as Ferenc Puskas (Hungary, 1952), Lev Yashin (Soviet Union, 1956), Gżegorz Lato (Poland, 1972), Oleh Blokhin (Soviet Union, 1976), Dunga (Brazil, 1984), Ciro Ferrara (Italy, 1988), Ronaldo and Roberto Carlos (Brazil, 1988), Carles Puyol (Spain, 2000), Andrea Pirlo (Italy, 2004), Lionel Messi (Argentina, 2008), Ronaldinho (Brazil, 2008), Neymar (Brazil, 2012, 2016) and Dani Alves (Brazil, 2020) have participated in Olympic football tournaments.

Although the Ukrainian national team made its debut at an Olympic football tournament, several Ukrainians have already become Olympic champions. After the victory of the Soviet Union's team in Seoul (1988), Oleksiy Chereshnyk, Oleksiy Mykhaylichenko, Yevhen Yarovenko, Volodymyr Lutyi and Vadim Tischenko received gold medals. The coach of that team was also a Ukrainian — Anatoliy Bezus.