From Haaland to Salah and Pogba, this year\u2019s World Cup will be without some of the biggest names in football.
\nThe World Cup is the biggest showcase event in football. It is expected that the game\u2019s biggest names will put on their best performances and help their teams reach new heights while also mesmerising fans. But some of the football world\u2019s biggest superstars will not be plying their trade at this year\u2019s event in Qatar that kicks off on November 20.
\nHere is a list of 10 players missing from the World Cup due to their teams\u2019 failure to qualify for the tournament.
\n1. Erling Haaland \u2013 NorwayErling Haaland made his international debut at the age of 19, and has scored 21 goals in 23 matches.
\n2. Mohamed Salah \u2013 Egypt\u201cI might be in Qatar during the World Cup,\u201d Egypt\u2019s Mohamed Salah told a television channel back in August.
\n3. David Alaba \u2013 AustriaDavid Alaba won his third Austrian sports personality of the year award this year, in addition to his eight Austrian Footballer of the Year awards, and the quadruple with Real Madrid in the 2021-22 season.
\n4. Riyad Mahrez \u2013 AlgeriaWinner of the CAF African Footballer of the Year award in 2016, the Africa Cup of Nations in 2016, and the Premier League with two different clubs, Riyad Mahrez has been consistently one of the best players from Africa in recent years.
\n5. Martin Odegaard \u2013 NorwayA leader on the pitch for club and country at the age of 23, Martin Odegaard\u2019s journey from youth to professional football has been swift.
\n6. Gianluigi Donnarumma \u2013 ItalyWhen Gianluigi Buffon quit international football, Italy had little trouble finding his successor. Not only did Gianluigi Donnarumma replace his namesake and idol with confidence, he established himself as the best young goalkeeper in the world.
\n7. Franck Kessie \u2013 Ivory CoastUnlike other breakout stars from Africa, Franck Kessie\u2019s journey to the top of European club football did not begin at an early age.
\n8. Luis Diaz \u2013 ColombiaOne of the biggest stars, and the joint leading goal-scorer of the 2021 Copa America, Luis Diaz has swiftly become the poster boy of Colombian football. He has scored eight goals in 37 appearances since his international debut in 2018.
\n9. Marco Verratti \u2013 ItalyMarco Verratti has been considered one of the best midfielders in the world since he was named the best player of the Italian second division in 2011-12. He was snapped up by PSG the following season, and was swiftly named the best young player in Ligue 1.
\n10. Victor Osimhen \u2013 NigeriaVictor Osimhen is a promising young striker from Nigeria, a Golden Boot winner at the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2015, and the leader of Napoli\u2019s attack in Serie A.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From Haaland to Salah and Pogba, this year\u2019s World Cup will be without some of the biggest names in football. The World Cup is the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2392,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}