Pep Guardiola will see 16 first-team players from Manchester City’s 21-man squad go to the World Cup later this month – leaving out those named in the U21 list (Rico Lewis, Josh Wilson-Esbrand, Cole Palmer).
Ederson (Brazil), Ruben Dias (Portugal), Aymeric Laporte (Spain), John Stones (England), Nathan Ake (Netherlands), Manuel Akanji (Switzerland), Joao Cancelo (Portugal), Kyle Walker (England), Rodri (Spain), Kalvin Phillips (England), Phil Foden (England), Ilkay Gundogan (Germany), Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium), Bernardo Silva (Portugal), Jack Grealish (England), Julian Alvarez (Argentina) have all been selected.
Guardiola will be left with just five first-team players for the City training camp in Abu Dhabi, so who are they?
Stefan Ortega looks a brilliant goalkeeper and has impressed in his handful of appearances at City, but he didn’t make the cut for Germany due to Manuel Neuer, Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Kevin Trapp getting the nod from Hansi Flick.
𝐆𝐄𝐑𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐘 🇩🇪
Here it is – our 26-man squad for the 2022 @FIFAWorldCup in Qatar 🏆 pic.twitter.com/U3KGoU5lnz
— germanfootball_dfb (@DFB_Team_EN) November 10, 2022
Scott Carson played for England between 2007 and 2011, making four caps, so he’s been out of the loop for a long time. And with the 37-year-old hardly playing due to being City’s third-choice goalkeeper, he was never in contention of a call-up. Jordan Pickford, Aaron Ramsdale and Nick Pope were preferred by Gareth Southgate.
Your #ThreeLions squad for the @FIFAWorldCup! 🦁 pic.twitter.com/z6gVkRTlT3
— England (@England) November 10, 2022
Sergio Gomez is some way off from representing Spain. The 22-year-old hasn’t held down a starting place at City this season and hasn’t put in the best performances when called upon.
He’s not represented the national team at senior level either, only playing for their U21s, so it wasn’t a surprise that Jordi Alba and Jose Gaya were preferred. Even Marc Cucurella missed out.
Spain’s World Cup squad is here 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/vBgObfSw2v
— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 11, 2022
Riyad Mahrez won’t be at the World Cup because Algeria didn’t qualify. The Desert Warriors, who made the 2010 and 2014 tournaments, were eliminated in the 2022 playoffs against Cameroon in April. Mahrez has 27 goals and 35 assists from 77 games for Algeria.
Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi when Cameroon knocked them out of the World Cup in the 124th minute 💔 pic.twitter.com/A91zQAkEPe
— B/R Football (@brfootball) March 29, 2022
Erling Haaland also won’t be at the World Cup because Norway didn’t qualify. The Lions finished third in their qualifying group, missing out on the playoffs by three points. Haaland has 21 goals with three assists from 23 games for his country.
📊 World Cup 2022 UEFA Qualifying – Group G
🇳🇱 Netherlands – 23
🇹🇷 Turkey – 21
🇳🇴 Norway – 18
🇲🇪 Montenegro – 12
🇱🇻 Latvia – 9
🇬🇮 Gibraltar – 0🤩 Best XI pic.twitter.com/ltJsr0W5GC
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) November 17, 2021
In other news, Jack Grealish could be dropped in Vital Man City’s Predicted Man City XI v Brentford
The Vital Network is unique from other football content providers as all the sites are run by the fans, for the fans. We are looking for a writer to join our Manchester City site. If you can write well-constructed, thought-provoking opinion pieces alongside reporting on current events and breaking news then I want to hear from you. Email paddy@snack-media.com.
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