Argentina, before its first World Cup without Maradona 4:40
(CNN Spanish) --
The technical director of Argentina, Lionel Scaloni, presented this Friday the list of the 26 players summoned to participate in the 2022 Qatar World Cup, which begins on November 20.
Scaloni publicly confirmed the team through a video that was published on the official social networks of the Argentine National Team.
Among the names called there are some surprises and also absences.
This week it became known that Giovanni Lo Celso would miss the tournament due to an operation that he will have to undergo due to a muscle injury.
Paulo Dybala, Exequiel Palacios, Enzo Fernández and Juan Foyth are the newcomers to Scaloni's squad.
In addition to Lo Celso, Ángel Correa is the great absentee.
Below, the names of all those summoned:
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Archers:
Emiliano Martinez
Geronimo Rulli
Frank Armani
Defenders:
Nahuel Molina
Gonzalo Montiel
Christian Romero
German Pezzella
Nicholas Otamendi
Lisandro Martinez
Marcos Acuna
Nicholas Tagliafico
John Foyth
Midfielders:
Rodrigo DePaul
Leandro Paredes
Alexis MacAllister
Guido Rodriguez
Alexander Gomez
Enzo Fernandez
Exequiel Palacios
Forwards:
Angel Di Maria
Lautaro Martinez
Julian Alvarez
Nicholas Gonzalez
Joaquin Correa
paulo dybala
Leo Messi
This is how Argentina arrives at the World Cup: favorite for the title as always, with Messi as the standard bearer
Argentina arrives with a memorable streak of 35 games without losses and with the Copa América title as support and motivation.
He is just two games short of the outright record held by Italy, who went unbeaten for 37 games between October 2018 and October 2021.
Since winning the World Cup at home in 1978, the Argentine team always appears as a candidate before each competition.
However, this time that previous favoritism is based on a specific issue: a team built over time, based on hard work and without depending exclusively on the inescapable figure of Lionel Messi.
Scaloni managed to build a team that bases its strength on collective play, on personality and on knowing in depth both its virtues and its defects.
It was a silent job, even against the criticism that intensified from the beginning of the cycle and that was only silenced with the victory in Brazil.
Messi is the captain and the soul of the team, but the team is not "messidependent".
That is, perhaps, the greatest virtue and the greatest achievement of Scaloni as a manager at the head of the Argentine team.
Lionel is happy in each call, he put the Argentine team ahead of the club, and that is one of the great advantages that the team has in the run-up to the World Cup.
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There is another unavoidable fact: at 35 years old, Messi knows that he will face his last World Cup in physical and footballing fullness.
Although his age and professionalism could allow him to play in the 2026 tournament, he would already be at the end of his career.
Therefore, everything seems to indicate that Qatar will be Messi's last chance to win a World Cup and, thus, definitively surpass Diego Maradona as the most important player in the entire history of the Argentine team.
The draw determined that Argentina is part of Group C of the Qatar World Cup along with Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Poland.
A priori, an area in which the South American team is the favourite, although recent experience shows that they cannot be trusted.
The debut will be on Tuesday, November 22 at 5 ET against the Arabs.
With information from Sofía Benavides and Juan Elverdin
Argentina FIFAWorld CupArgentina National Team