BUENOS AIRES (AP) — The Argentine football team will feature star Lionel Messi and seven youth club players from Europe for the last two matches against Venezuela and Ecuador in the South American qualifiers for the Qatar World Cup.
Argentina, which has a ticket to the World Cup beforehand, will close its participation in the qualifiers against Venezuela on March 25 at La Bombonera in Buenos Aires and against Ecuador four days later at the Banco Pichincha Monumental Stadium in Guayaquil.
Among the 33 players called up for both matches, coach Lionel Scaloni confirmed on Friday Messi, captain of the national team, and the young dual-nationals who have been called for the first time: Franco and Valentín Carboni (Inter, Italy), Luka Romero (Lazio, Italy), Matías Soulé (Juventus, Italy), Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United, England), Nicolás Paz (Real Madrid, Spain) and Tiago Geralnik (Villarreal, Spain).
According to the regulations, a player can represent different teams at the youth level, but once he makes his debut in the major league he cannot play for another country.
The best known is Romero, who was born in Mexico, has an Argentine father and at the age of 15 he was the youngest player to make his debut in the Spanish league with Mallorca. His surname was in the crosshairs of the national teams of Spain and Mexico.
Messi will return after her absence in the last two matches against Chile and Colombia in January and February that marked victories for Argentina, the current champion of America. The 34-year-old star had been absent because he was recovering from COVID-19.
For the matches against Venezuela and Ecuador, Scaloni decided to dispense with 11 of the 44 players he had initially called in a shortlist released on March 6, including goalkeeper Emiliano “Dibu” Martínez, defender Cristian “Cuti” Romero and midfielders Giovani Lo Celso and Emiliano Buendia.
SQUAD:
Goalkeepers: Franco Armani (River Plate, Argentina), Geronimo Rulli (Villarreal, Spain) and Juan Musso (Atalanta, Italy).
Defenders: Gonzalo Montiel (Seville, Spain), Nahuel Molina (Udinese, Italy), Nicolás Otamendi (Benfica, Portugal), Juan Foyth (Villarreal, Spain), Lucas Martínez Quarta (Fiorentina, Italy), Germán Pezzella (Betis, Spain), Lisandro Martinez (Ajax, Netherlands) and Nicolás Tagliafic (Ajax).
Midfielders: Rodrigo De Paul (Atletico Madrid, Spain), Leandro Paredes (PSG, France), Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen, Germany), Manuel Lanzini (West Ham, England), Guido Rodriguez (Betis, Spain), Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton, England), Lucas Ocampos (Seville, Spain), Nicolás Paz (Real Madrid), Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United, England), Tiago Geralnik (Villarreal, Spain), Franco Carboni and Valentín Carboni (Inter, Italy).
Forwards: Lionel Messi (PSG, France), Lautaro Martinez (Inter, Italy), Nicolas Gonzalez (Fiorentina, Italy), Angel Correa (Atletico Madrid, Spain), Angel Di Maria (PSG), Julian Alvarez (River Plate, Argentina), Joaquin Correa (Inter, Italy), Matias Soulé (Juventus, Italy), Lucas Boyé (Elche, Spain) and Luka Romero (Inter).