David Beckham was expected to be selected as one of three overage players for the Great Britain Olympic soccer team, but he's been left off in favor of Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy and Micah Richards. Manager Stuart Pearce, who also manages the England Under-21 national team, will select the rest of his squad at a later date.
The Olympic soccer tournament is made up of Under-23 squads with three overage players allowed. Most of the squad will be made up of English players, with the football associations of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland opposing the selection of their players for their team. Pearce may have trouble balancing out the team with players from all four associations because of that, but was able to bring in a couple of Welshmen with his overage slots. Additionally, all four teams are short on good, young defenders, which probably played into Pearce's decision to take Richards.
Beckham will find some role at the Olympic games, even if he's not going to be competing, but he's been very vocal in the past about his desire to play and will certainly be disappointed that he hasn't been selected by Pearce.
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