By Dan King - Newcastle United Club Reporter

Olympic medal winner Fabricio Coloccini says winning gold with Argentina in 2004 remains one of the highlights of his career - and has urged North-East supporters to turn out to watch the games held on Tyneside.

Newcastle's captain played in the football tournament at Athens eight years ago, with his side beating Paraguay in the final, and the draw for the 2012 competition was made on Tuesday.

That brought the memories flooding back for Coloccini, who played the whole match at the Olympic Stadium on 28th August 2004 as Carlos Tevez's goal proved decisive in front of a crowd of 41,116.

"It was one of the best moments I've had so far in my career," the 30-year-old told nufc.co.uk. "Argentina had never won the gold medal at that time and we won, so it was important. And then at the 2008 Olympics, they won again.

"There was Tevez, (Javier) Mascherano, (Roberto) Ayala, Nicolas Mendina... we had a great team. It was a good, good team.

"I think after the World Cup, it's the most important tournament so it'll be good when it comes to London and they play here as well, so it's going to be good to watch the games."

Newcastle will host nine matches in total - five mens' group games and one quarter-final and two womens' group games plus a quarter-final - with the likes of Brazil, Spain and Mexico playing at Gallowgate.

And Coloccini said: "The fans will enjoy the games because they're nice to see. It's different to the Premier League but it's nice and I think it's second only to the World Cup."