With the World Cup kicking off in just 26 days, it’s getting to that time where countries are finally releasing their 23-man squads that will travel to Russia.
It is every player’s dream to represent their country at the world’s biggest stage, so the months and weeks leading up to it are just as nail-biting as the actual tournament itself. Not everyone can make the team, and those left behind will be heartbroken.
There are still plenty of teams that have not yet released their official squad lists, but out of the few that have, there are already some big names missing that many people thought were guaranteed places; the reasoning behind their omission may still be unclear.
Here’s a look at some of the well-known superstars that ARE NOT going to Russia next month:
Alexandre Lacazette (Arsenal)
A first season to forget for the ex-Lyon man. Lacazette signed for Arsenal in the summer to replace the of out of favour Olivier Giroud, yet by January Giroud had moved to Chelsea in what he described as a step-up in his career and Arsenal were back in the market for another striker in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Scoring 14 goals in 32 appearances isn’t bad for a first season at your new club, but it wasn’t enough to convince Didier Deschamps to include him in France’s 23, which has a plethora of attacking talent in Antoine Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele and Thomas Lemar.
Other notable names missing from France’s squad are Laurent Koscielny and Dimitri Payet, but both are out due to injury.
Alex Sandro (Juventus)
Despite not hitting the same form he had during the 2016/17 season, Alex Sandro has still been one of the best left-backs in Europe; he’s just unlucky that Marcelo and Filipe Luis were better than him. The Juventus man has earned shockingly low amount of 10 international caps since his first in 2011, which just shows the incredible squad depth Tite has to choose from. Veteran Dani Alves has also been ruled out of the World Cup squad due to an injury, its a shame Alex Sandro isn’t a right back!
Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)
A usually injury-prone Jack Wilshere took to Twitter last night to say that he’s “incredibly disappointed” in being left out of the England 23, even though he’s had his most injury free season in recent years, appearing 38 times for Arsenal this season. His tweet read that he has felt “fit, sharp and strong all season” and given the chance he could have made a real impact, but Gareth Southgate felt that other midfielders had better seasons that him, including Chelsea’s Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Manchester United’s Jesse Lingard and Manchester City’s Fabian Delph.
What was even more shocking however was Southgate’s decision to also leave Jack out of the standby list of players, opting for consistent and injury-free players like Jake Livermore and Lewis Cook.
David Luiz (Chelsea)
David Luiz is probably the most passionate Brazilian footballers of his generation; when he plays he gives more than 100% every single time – we saw that in Brazil in 2014. However, his fall out with Antonio Conte and an untimely injury has kept him out of the World Cup squad. He is back in training but isn’t fully fit and has not made Chelsea’s matchday squad for a long time. This might have been his last opportunity to play in a World Cup and he will be heartbroken to be missing out.
Geromel has made the squad as his alternative and he’ll be happy as it might be his last World Cup too.
Anthony Martial (Manchester United)
Martial’s season is another one to forget. He was having another good campaign with the Red Devils before the arrival of Alexis Sanchez curtailed his first-team opportunities. A breakdown of his relationship with manager Jose Mourinho didn’t do any good to his cause either, as he was consistently dropped from the squad despite still putting in good performances; starting just 18 Premier League games, he scored 9 times and assisted another 5. He also created 30 chances, bettered only by Juan Mata, Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku in the team. But the fact they started at least 7 games more than him, makes Martial’s figures even more impressive. The Frenchman will be gutted to be sitting on the waiting list come June 14.
