Kylian Mbappe wanted to take part in this year’s Olympics in his home city, while there were hopes that Lionel Messi would feature for Argentina, but instead the men’s football tournament at the Paris Games will be largely devoid of star attractions.

Mbappe is the captain of France and the most famous athlete in the country hosting this year’s Games, and his presence in coach Thierry Henry’s Olympic squad would have been an enormous boost for organizers as well as for the team’s chances of winning gold.

But Mbappe, 25, had to accept that his new club Real Madrid would not allow him to participate immediately after he played in the French side that reached the semifinals of Euro 2024 in Germany.

That is the problem for the men’s soccer competition, which begins on Wednesday and runs until August 9.

Clubs are not obliged to release players for a tournament held outside an official FIFA window for international soccer, following straight on from the European Championship and Copa America.

Messi, now 37 and part of the Argentina team that claimed Olympic gold in Beijing in 2008, ruled himself out of Javier Mascherano’s squad for Paris shortly before the Copa America in the United States, which his country won.

“I spoke with Mascherano, and we immediately agreed on the situation,” Messi told ESPN. “At my age, I don’t want to play everything and I need to make the right choices.”

Henry, a French great, also missed out on several other players he had hoped to call up.

“The last time I had so many rejections was when I was at high school,” he joked when announcing a team in which the most recognisable names are Alexandre Lacazette, the 33-year-old Lyon striker, and new Bayern Munich signing Michael Olise.

The competition is restricted to players aged under 23, apart from a maximum of three overage players per squad.

As well as the superstar names, the tournament is also missing Brazil, who won gold in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and retained the title in Tokyo three years ago, beating Spain in the final.