Olympic gold medalist played alongside Liverpool star before making career switch

Liverpool does not have any players competing at the Olympics in Paris. Some of its former heroes are on duty this summer though.

The Reds’ only winner of Olympic gold is Javier Mascherano. He won the football tournament in 2008, defending the 2004 title he won prior to joining Liverpool , and he is coaching Argentina this year . His fellow former Reds midfielder Naby Keïta is also in France, carrying Guinea’s flag at the opening ceremony last Friday.

There is no Netherlands side competing for men’s football gold so there was no chance that Cody Gakpo would be involved. However, a former teammate of the Liverpool forward has won a gold medal in a different sport entirely.

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Gakpo came through the ranks at PSV Eindhoven, the club from whom Liverpool bought the Dutchman for $46m (£35m/€42m) in 2023. When he was around 15 years old, Gakpo played alongside a left-back eight months his junior called Remco Evenepoel.

The Belgian youngster had joined PSV from Anderlecht and returned there in the summer of 2015. Before he left he helped set up at least one goal for Gakpo (see below), but their professional careers would soon take very different paths.

Evenepoel represented Belgium at youth team level, playing alongside the likes of now-RB Leipzig forward Lois Openda. But he switched to cycling in 2017, following in the footsteps of his former professional cyclist father Patrick. It is unlikely he regrets leaving football behind.

Having won two stages of the Giro d'Italia last year, Evenepoel tackled the Tour de France for the first time in 2024. He took the white jersey which is awarded to the leader of the young rider classification, came third overall and won a time trail stage.

And better was to come in the same country on Saturday. The 24-year-old won the Men’s road time trail event to earn himself an Olympic gold medal. Evenepoel’s time of 36:12.16 put him almost 15 seconds ahead of the silver medallist, Italy’s Filippo Ganna.

He may not be a footballer any more but he hasn’t forgotten Gakpo, as he showed when speaking to Dutch channel NOS Sport ahead of Netherlands’ Euro 2024 match with Turkey. "Cody is going to score and decide the game,” Evenepoel said.

He was effectively proved correct too. The Dutch won the game 2-1, with Gakpo forcing Turkish defender Mert Muldur to put through his own net and settle the game in the 76 ^th minute. He’s good at predicting football and has an Olympic gold medal; is there anything Evenepoel can’t do?