FRANCE star Theo de Percin was cruelly denied an Olympic medal due to a snub from his manager – and a little-known rule.
Thierry Henry‘s troops came up short against Spain in the gold medal match last Friday, suffering a 5-3 defeat.
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The French, understandably, cut dejected figures as they were handed their silver medals.
But none more so than De Percin, who didn’t receive a silver despite being part of the tournament squad.
The Auxerre stopper wasn’t given a medal as he wasn’t named on the bench in any of France‘s games, which is the minimum requirement for players to be medallists.
Article 30.1 of the Olympic Football Tournament regulation states: “Should an alternate player replace a player and appear on the start list, said alternate player will also obtain a medal should their team finish first, second or third in the Tournaments, in addition to the replaced player.”
De Percin, 23, was one of France‘s four standby players in case of injury.
And cruelly for him, he was the only one of the quartet not to feature – even if only on the substitutes bench.
Due to Henry snubbing him, De Percin watched from the sidelines as France fought back from 3-1 down in the final at the Parc de Princes to force extra time against Spain.
But his teammates went on to concede two more goals and had their dreams of winning Olympic gold on home soil shattered.
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After the match, Henry said: “There is one thing that is super important to me, it is that the team fought.
“We played a match, at the beginning we did not have the impression that it was going to be a match.
“And we made it a match where it was decided by very little.
“But we cannot say that this team did not fight.”
The Arsenal icon added: “And so this group, whatever happens, we know that we will never find ourselves together again like that.
“It’s just impossible, we know that, but this group is for life for me.”
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