Soccer player Michael Olise slammed for taking off his silver medal after losing Olympic final

A French soccer player is being criticized for his reaction to losing out on gold to Spain at the Olympics.

On Saturday (August 10), France and Spain went head-to-head for the highly anticipated Olympics soccer final.

With France being this year's hosts there was a lot of pressure on the team to win and this seemingly showed as they went on to lose 5 - 3 to their Spanish opponents after extra time.

While in big soccer competitions like the World Cup and European Championship those who lose the final come out with nothing, at the Olympics all runners-up still win a silver medal.

But this didn't seem to cushion the blow for soccer star Michael Olise.

In fact he was so disappointed that he was seen removing his silver medal from round his neck while still on the podium.

The 22-year-old has since been criticized for this, with some going as far as saying that soccer should be dropped from the Olympics altogether.

"This to me is why football shouldn’t be in the Olympics," someone wrote on social media next to a photo of Olise seen removing his medal.

"For the majority of Olympians, they work relentlessly for 4 years to peak at just the right time. It’s the pinnacle, their reason. Sure they want gold, but a silver medal is massive."

"It’s not a Carabao Cup runners up," they added.

A different person said of Olise: "Speaks volumes of his maturity. We saw loads of teams, even the bronze medalists who had to sit through the entire final of the team event, keep their medals on."

"Players shouldn't be taking off runner up medals in the first place, it's a lack of respect," agreed another, while someone else labeled Olise's actions as 'wildly disrespectful'.

Other sports fans were more empathetic towards the way the Bayern Munich star was feeling though.

Someone said: "His mentality is for gold. You can't knock him for feeling disappointment. Not everyone reacts the same to winning and losing."

Agreeing, another soccer fan penned: "He celebrated it afterwards with his teammates, he was understandably emotional in the moment, & he's not the only person to remove a silver medal out of anger."

While Olise was evidently disappointed that they lost, the team's manager Thierry Henry said he was 'proud' of them all.

"It wasn't easy to build this team up, but I'm proud of the work we did," the ex professional soccer star said, as per BBC Sport.

UNILAD has contacted the French Football Federation for comment.

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