World Cup Countdown – stars you won’t see

Following Inter Milan’s 2-0 victory over Bayern Munich in Saturday’s European Champions’ League final, focus now firmly turns to the World Cup, which starts in 16 days.

We already know a few who won’t be traveling with their respective nations. USA’s Charlie Davies failed in his race to be fit, as we know, but also out through injury, at the time of writing, are Germany’s Michael Ballack and France’s Lassana Diarra.

And for other stars from fancied nations, there will be no World Cup after they were left out of their countries’ preliminary squads.

Ronaldinho, the two-time FIFA World Player of the Year, has been omitted from Dunga's Brazilian squad, while Adriano has been left out due to doubts caused by recent off-the-field problems that caused him to miss several training sessions with Flamengo.

Holland has left out Ruud Van Nistelrooy, former Manchester United and Real Madrid striker, whose long-term absence from the squad ended his chances, while veteran midfielder Clarence Seedorf of AC Milan was also excluded.

Probably one of France’s best players, Karim Benzema, has been left out of Raymond Domenech’s 24 man squad because of his unimpressive season with Real Madrid and not because of his alleged involvement in a prostitution scandal, said the coach. Also out of the squad is Arsenal’s Samir Nasri, who could have been a useful addition with his pace and vision, and Manchester City’s Patrick Vieira, who was named to the 2006 World Cup All-Star team.

Italy’s Marcello Lippi also chipped in with a surprise, leaving out Luca Toni, the Azzurri’s main striker in 2006 and at the 2008 European Championships.


Javier Zanetti: omitted by Maradona

And we couldn’t do a piece on omissions without mentioning our friend Diego Maradona, who excluded Esteban Cambiasso, Javier Zanetti, Juan Roman Riquelme and Fernando Gago from the Argentinean squad.

You may have seen Cambiasso and Zanetti put in solid displays in the aforementioned Champions’ League final for Inter Milan at the weekend, but Maradona has chosen to leave both out. Cambiasso has not been included in the national team since Maradona took over in November 2008, while Zanetti has not even been on the roster since being dropped as Argentina’s captain.

Gago, meanwhile, is a Real Madrid regular, and creative midfielder Riquelme has been in a rift with Maradona for a time.

And with the final 23 man rosters due into FIFA headquarters for all 32 nations by June 1, expect to see some more well know names added to the list of absentees.