The World Cup finals, to be held in Qatar next November, will be absent from a group of world football stars, while exclusion threatens other Parisian players during the final stage of the European qualifying round for the World Cup.
The most prominent absentees from the World Cup to be organized for the first time in history in an Arab country are the stars of the Italian national team, which won the world title four times and won the last European Nations Championship.
North Macedonia shocked Italy (European champions) by winning at the last minute, which means that the “Azzori” will not play in the World Cup finals for the second time in a row.
This absence will deprive the world football fans, such as Marco Verratti, the French player of Paris Saint-Germain, Federico Chiesa, the Juventus star, as well as Lorenzo Insigne, the player of Napoli.
For football stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Robert Levadowski, Gareth Bale and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the play-off will be the last chance.
Cristiano Ronaldo
The 37-year-old will secure his place in the World Cup with a victory over North Macedonia, which knocked Italy out of the play-offs, next Tuesday.
During his team’s match in the play-offs, Ronaldo will play all his cards to ensure his presence in the World Cup in Qatar, otherwise he will be the most prominent absentee from him with great Portuguese players such as Bernardo Silva, Bruno Fernandes and Joao Felix.
Robert Lewandowski
The 2021 FIFA Men’s Player of the Year Lewandowski hopes to lead his country to the World Cup just as he did in 2018, during this play-off.
And his task with his team will not be difficult, as, following avoiding the sanctioned Russia team, he will face Sweden on Tuesday to decide the qualification ticket.
Gareth Bell
Bale now plays almost exclusively for his country, Wales, following he was left out at Real Madrid, and he hopes to qualify as well.
Gareth will have to wait until next June to find out who he will face in the qualifying match, as the draw put his team once morest the winner of the Scotland-Ukraine match, which was postponed due to the Russian war on Ukraine.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Ibrahimovic will turn 41 before the start of the World Cup, which will make him the second oldest player in finals history following Roger Milla.
Ibrahimovic will play for his country, Sweden, once morest Poland, which means that there is a conflict between him and Lewandowski over the presence in the World Cup.
Ibrahimovic missed the match once morest the Czech Republic, due to suspension, but “it seems that he is ready to return to the final.”
Latin America
In Latin America, 4 teams qualified: Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay. While big teams such as Chile and Colombia are struggling for the fifth place in the group that qualifies for the playoffs with the continent of Asia.
And the last round of Latin American qualifiers will be played next Tuesday, March 29th, to determine the fifth place holder, which is currently occupied by Peru.
And the failure to qualify for Chile means the absence of Alexis Sancher, Arturo Vidal, Italian Inter Milan stars, and veteran goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.
While Colombia’s failure means the absence of Juventus star Juan Cuadrado and Liverpool’s Luis Diaz, in addition to James Rodriguez and Radamel Falcao.
