Britain, which will field an Olympic soccer team for the first time since the 1960 Games, will be captained by 38-year-old Welsh winger Ryan Giggs, who has won 12 English PremierLeague titles, five FA Cups and two Champions Leagues with Manchester United.
The Olympic men’s soccer tournament is an under-23 competition in which each team is allowed three overageplayers. Giggs will captain the team for the first time when it plays Brazil in a warmup at Middlesbrough on July 20.
“Obviously I have the experience and there are a lot of younger playersin the squad, so as captain hopefully I can pass that on to the younger players,” Giggs said. “It’s a tremendous honour to be part of the Olympics and I am really proud to be involved. Differentnations have got different views about the Olympics, but as a player I am going to enjoy it and try and win it.”
Britain is grouped with Uruguay, the United Arab Emirates and Senegal at theEngland-hosted Olympics.