1st: Zlatan Ibrahimovic
The great striker for Paris Saint-Germain, son of a Croatian mother and born in Malmo, Sweden, is in no doubt among the best players missing the World Cup. The Swedish striker doesn’t have a base of players that support him. In the elimination rounds, Sweden had to face Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal, Ibra scored 2 goals in that game but it was nothing compared to the 4 goals that Cristiano scored making it a 2-4 aggregate score. Ibra said during the elimination of his team that ” a World Cup without me is not worth seeing”. He’s somewhat right there.
2nd: Gareth Bale
The Player that cost Real Madrid 100 Million Euros could not qualify his nation to what would have been their 2nd World Cup appearance in history. The same as his patriot, Ryan Giggs, they must be comfortable in playing in one of the best teams in the world. Wales was 3rd in the European group where Belgium and Croatia advanced.
3rd: Arda Turan
A key player for Atletico De Madrid, this talented midfielder is the captain of Turkey. Turkey’s national team is far from being that team that got 3rd place in 2002. In fact, on the road to the 2014 World Cup, a loss to Holland in the last match made it impossible for Turkey to be in the playoffs and left Turan out of the World Cup.
4th: Petr Cech
The goalkeeper that helped Chelsea win the Champions League in the 2011-2012 season, wanted to go back to the World Cup after his native Czech Republic last competed for the trophy in 2006. Since then, Cech has maintained himself as one of the best goalkeepers in the old continent, but his nation was one point behind Denmark and couldn’t enter the playoffs.
5th: Roberth Lewandowski
A figure for Borussia Dortmund during their Champions League run in 2012-2013, he was a big target for Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. He is one of the best players in Europe and without a doubt a player that would have been watched in the World Cup. Lewandowski couldn’t help Poland get out of fourth place in their group, being behind England, Ukraine and Montenegro.
6th: Jefferson Farfan
Farfan has been in Europe for 9 years but he has not lost his touch nor his South American roots. This player has both techniques and speed that don’t seem to finish. A key player for Peru, he exploded when Peru got seventh place in the CONMEBOL and didn’t qualify for this year’s World Cup. Peru’s last appearance in a World Cup was in 1982, so Farfan will have to wait another 4 years to give it a shot again.
7th: Landon Donovan
An icon for USA soccer, Landon Donovan was cut by Klinsmann, saying that there are younger guys that have what he is lacking. Even though the USA qualified for the World Cup, Landon had high hopes in been on the sheet in what would have been his 4th appearance in the World Cup. For some people, Klinsmann made a HUGE mistake in cutting of Donovan because what young players lack is the mentality and Donovan has that.
8th: Ronaldinho, Kaka and Robinho
The 3 great players of Brazil had been cut by coach Luis Felipe Scolari. Its been a while since we have seen the 3 warriors wearing their nation’s color. Neither of them lack potential. All 3 of them have been on great teams like Ronaldinho during his time in Barcelona, as well as Kaka and Robinho in Real Madrid. I understand that neither of them are young, but not taking them to this year’s world cup for me is disrespect, they have tournament experience that may have helped them but Scolari thought otherwise, forming a younger team.
I know there’s many more players that are going to miss the World Cup but these were players that had to be in there. Them not being there is due to either their nation not qualifying, injury, or getting cut . If I missed an important player that you think should be on this list, please feel free to comment below.
