With the World Cup only eight months away, the latest round of qualifications finished up across the world this week and the full line-up for the tournament is nearly complete. A shock defeat for Italy, along with both Egypt and Algeria crashing out in Africa, means several stars will not be on a plane to Qatar when the time comes in November.
In light of that, the Sun has formulated a team of the best 11 players that will not be present in Qatar and there are some huge names on the list, which can be seen below.
The biggest names on the list are, of course, Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah and Borussia Dortmund’s Erling Haaland.
Salah’s Egypt lost last night to Senegal on penalties, after the tie finished 1-1 on aggregate; whilst Haaland’s Norway just missed out on a playoffs spot, after finishing third in their qualification group behind the Netherlands and Turkey.
After their shock defeat to North Macedonia last Thursday, three Italian players also make the cut; they come in the form of Jorginho, Leonardo Spinazzola and Giorgio Chiellini, but you could throw in names like Marco Verratti and Gianluigi Donnarumma who are also two top players that will miss out.
If you were to compile a bench for this team; along with the two Italian players mentioned above, you could add names such as Austria’s David Alaba, Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovich and Chile’s Arturo Vidal to name a few.
It is seen as a privilege to play at a World Cup not only because it comes around every four years but not every superstar can choose whether they are born into the bigger nations – which most of the time qualify for the tournament.
It will be a shame not to see the names above in Qatar but that won’t take away any of the spectacles that football’s biggest tournament often produces.