8 great figures who stayed out of the World Cup in Qatar

From Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who missed his last chance, to Erling Haaland, the forward of the future, to Marco Verratti, Messi's PSG partner. The qualifiers were an insurmountable obstacle for several selected weighty

Guardar

The qualifiers do not stop accumulating heavy victims. Just as several teams celebrated the passage to the Qatar World Cup, others, with figures in their ranks, fell by the wayside. And many of the footballers who delight their clubs week after week will miss the ecumenical event. And it will represent one less attraction for sports fans. Here is a list of the great absentees of the next World Cup.

GianluigiDonnarumma

Infobae
Gigi fought for the best goalkeeper of the year award, but then his level declined (REUTERS/Alberto Lingria)

The 23-year-old goalkeeper was Italy's big figure in the European Championship who won his national team. However, his level fell by a toboggan after PSG's defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League, in which he was decisive, given that a mistake of his led to Merengue's reaction. He could do nothing in the repechage against North Macedonia, who won in stoppage time and left Azzurra without World Cup.

Infobae
Alaba was on the road to Wales (REUTERS/Javier Barbancho)

The 29-year-old middle-side scoreboard shines at Real Madrid and was multi-champion at Bayern Munich. However, he failed to lead the Austrian national team to the World Cup: he lost to Wales in the run-up to the Repechage final.

Marco Verratti

Infobae
Verratti's disappointment after the stumbling block against North Macedonia (REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane)

Another Italian star who will watch the World Cup on TV. The midfielder, and perhaps Messi's best partner so far in PSG, misses the second consecutive World Cup at age 29.

Erling Haaland

Infobae
The path of Haaland's Norway in the qualifiers turned out to be winding (Hakon Mosvold Larsen/NTB via REUTERS)

The Borussia Dortmund attacker, pointed out by the specialists, along with Kylian Mbappé, as the heir of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, will not participate in the event because Norway. His team (and Martin Odegaard's, another great value) came third in Group G of the European qualifiers, behind the Netherlands (qualified) and Turkey, which did not pass Portugal's cut in the repechage.

Pierre Emerick Aubameyang

Aubameyang gabon
Aubameyang, in a Gabon match against Burkina Faso (Visionhaus/Corbis via Getty Images)

The 32-year-old tip, today again at high level in Barcelona, is the victim of a national team that did not live up to it: Gabon.

MohamedSalah

Captura Salah lasers
Salah, at the time of execution by penalties: he was harmed by lasers

At 29, the Liverpool man is one of the best attackers today. However, he ended up being decisive in the elimination of Egypt, which lost to Senegal on penalties: he failed the first attempt of the series.

Riyad Mahrez

Infobae
Riyad started the match in which Algeria was at the door of the World Cup (Getty Images)

The figure of Manchester City, 31, stayed at the door with Algeria. He fell 2-1 to Cameroon in the 194th minute of the key and watched the chance slip from the pitch.

ZlatanIbrahimovic

Infobae
Zlatan played two World Cups: Korea-Japan 2002 and Germany 2006 (Jonas Ekstromer/TT News Agency via REUTERS)

At the age of 40, the legendary striker saw his last chance to play a World Cup. He entered the second half, but failed to reverse his team's 2-0 loss to Robert Lewandowski's Poland. The winner of The Best Award will go to Qatar.

KEEP READING: