Spain’s coach Luis Enrique will unveil a massive preliminary squad for the upcoming World Cup, and a national team legend could be poised to make his return.
Sergio Ramos has experienced some bad times in the last couple of years since rejecting a new one-year contract with Real Madrid to join PSG on an even bigger long-term deal. His first season was marred by injuries, but this year he has turned a new leaf. He has appeared in ten Ligue 1 games for the French champions, starting a third of them.
Luis Enrique will decide on his final squad as late as possible to make sure he did his job and a massive 55-player preliminary squad should give him plenty of options to choose from. Ramos’ inclusion in the preliminary squad doesn’t guarantee him a place in the World Cup and Spain’s coach will need to mull over some possible backups to his main two central defenders, Pau Torres and Aymeric Laporte.
Ramos exits international wilderness
It’s been 19 months since Ramos last played for his national team, however, over the course of his career career he has accumulated a record 180 caps for La Roja. Ramos spent 16 years playing for Spain overall, scoring 23 goals. He was a part of teams that won the European Championships, as well as the World Cup.
The last time Ramos was a part of Spain’s squad was back in March of 2021, and a lot has changed since then. A new, younger generation of players has been promoted which was long overdue for a Spanish team that has struggled in recent big competitions. They did make a comeback in last year’s EUROs, but before that third-place finish they were unable to get out of the group stage at the 2014 World Cup and lost in the Last 16 four years later.
Sergio Ramos has played in 29 matches since joining PSG in 2021.
They haven’t lost a single match when he’s played ? pic.twitter.com/Np8YICMh5z
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) October 27, 2022
Who could miss out for Spain?
Luis Enrique, as reported by the Spanish media, will not make his 55-man squad available to the public, so there will be enough speculation about who is going to be selected for the final 26-man team for the World Cup. But, it seems that the former Barcelona player himself, won’t be selecting a talented 19-year-old Ansu Fati. Another of Barcelona’s hopefuls scored 22 goals with 19 assists in 74 matches for Barca.
However, there is a place in the team for another of Barca’s youngsters, Alejandro Balde, who should get a chance to impress Luis Enrique. Nico Williams, a talented 20-year-old from Athletic Bilbao will be part of the team, and he is one of the players that could be a definite selection for the main squad for the World Cup.
Spain will be a part of Group E at the World Cup alongside Germany, Costa Rica, and Japan. There are due to start their campaign on November 23rd against Costa Rica.
Luis Enrique will have until November 11th to decide his final 26-man squad which gives him about 14 days to make his choice and cut a large number of players who would hopefully be a part of the biggest sporting event in the world due to start in Qatar on November 20th.
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