Aug 9, 2008, 11:05 GMT
Beijing/Buenos Aires - Argentina midfielder Javier Mascherano is out to defend the country's gold from Athens 2004 at the Beijing Olympics, but that is not his only goal.
As with soon-to-be world number one tennis player Rafael Nadal and others before him, the Liverpool midfielder has shown that professional sportsmen enjoy the magic of the Games and the experience of sharing space with stars that they too look up to.
'The Dream Team, the NBA guys. Especially Kobe Bryant,' Mascherano told the Argentine daily Clarin in an interview that was published Saturday in Buenos Aires.
'If I see him, I will ask him for a photo. At the last Games I stood beside (Roger) Federer...'
Argentina won their opening game against Ivory Coast 2-1 on Thursday. The team's path to renewed Olympic glory was set to continue Sunday, against Australia.
Mascherano praised his team-mates Juan Roman Riquelme and Lionel Messi, but refused to take his pick among two players rumoured not to get on well.
'We need them both. Roman as a director and the team's brains. And Lionel with the fantasy and the capacity to knock the rival off balance which he has,' he said.
The midfielder stressed, however, that the team's two superstars are getting on just fine.
'I would be the first to be annoyed if the group was not working properly, because it is hard to live together for 40 days and not stand the person by your side. Of course (Riquelme and Messi) are in two different age groups and have two different approaches to everything: life, football... But each one respects the other.'
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