History => Olympic football ..

Prior to 1988, Olympic football was an amateur event, meaning that only non-professional players could participate. Due to this, West Germany was never able to achieve the same degree of success at the Olympics as at the World Cup, with the only medal coming in the 1988 Olympics, when they won the bronze. Since then, however, no German team ever managed to qualify for the Olympics again. West Germany also reached the Second Round in both 1972, and 1984. This is in contrast to the success of East Germany which won a gold, a silver and two bronze medals (one representing the United Team of Germany).