The Argentina national team completed the presentation card for the 2025 season with a 2-0 victory over Angola in Luanda last Friday. In the year before World Cup contention in the United States, Canada and Mexico, the Albiceleste team played nine matches with a record of seven wins, one draw and one loss, seeking to uphold the title of champions won in Qatar in 2022.
The six matches that completed their participation in the South American qualification (Uruguay 1-0, Brazil 4-1, 1-0 Chile, 1-1 Colombia, 3-0 Venezuela, 0-1 Ecuador) include two matches held in Miami last month (Venezuela 1-0, 6-0 Puerto Rico) and a few days ago on African soil, a kind of political act in the framework of celebrating the host country’s 50th anniversary of independence.
Due to low demand for football and high turnover in the AFA, coach Lionel Scaloni has used recent social meetings to test replacement players and begin to finalize the list of players who will compete in the 2026 FIFA Cup.
/// AFA Press
Racing de Strasbourg forward and current top scorer in French Ligue 1, Córdoba-born Joaquín Panicelli was one of the names added to a long list of 132 players called up by the manager during his seven years in charge. The former River Plate reserve striker, who previously played for Racing de Nueva Italia, Belgrano and Deportivo Atalaya, played a few minutes against Angola and is one of the forwards in the race for third place in a team with Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez in the ‘number positions’.
The final against Spain, scheduled for March in Qatar, will pit the defending Copa America and EuroCup winners against each other and will be Argentina’s final test before the 2026 World Cup.
Jose Manuel López (Palmeiras, Brazil) and Valentin Castellanos (Lazio, Italy) are other options the coaching staff is considering as they add variation to their attacking line-up.
“We don’t have many slots,” Scaloni admitted. We look forward to the World Cup draw in Washington on December 5th, where we will not only find out who Argentina’s rivals are, but also exactly how many footballers FIFA will allow each team to include on its good faith list.
/// CEDOC Profile
The base is
Regardless of whether there are 26, 28 or 30 squares available for a player to score, Scaloni acknowledged that “the base is there” but “there’s always room for someone else to come in.” Premature qualification for the 2026 World Cup (Argentina secured their passport before playing Brazil for the second time this year) has allowed the manager and his collaborators to move forward with the process of generational change and the search for replacement players.
Cristian Romero, Nahuel Molina and Julián Álvarez are among the players on the list of players who will be in the running for the 23rd FIFA Cup. The three Cordobans made their debut in the Albiceleste shirt at the same time on June 3, 2021, in the 1-1 draw against Chile in the last World Cup qualifier, and went on to win in Qatar and win the Copa America twice.
Paulo Dybala, Lucas Beltrán, Bruno Zappelli, Enzo Barrenetxea and Mariano Troilo are the remaining five players from Cordoba selected for the final South American qualifier.
Among the Mediterranean Tridents, “El Cuti” was the only one to play in the final friendly of the year, as Molina and Álvarez, who participated with perfect attendance in 2025, were unable to travel to Luanda due to administrative issues. “Atlético Madrid’s football players have been left on the sidelines as the health procedures related to the yellow fever vaccine required to enter Angola have not been completed in time,” the AFA said in a statement.
Thus, the Tottenham Hotspur defender, who was absent due to suspension in the epilogue of the qualifying match against Ecuador and came on as a substitute in the friendly against Puerto Rico, reached 47 appearances in the light blue and white shirt and became the captain after being replaced by Lionel Messi.
Over the past eight games this year, Molina has started six games and started on the bench in two, giving him a total of 56 games for the AFA national team. Álvarez started the six Conmebol qualifying games and the friendly against Venezuela (he came on as a substitute against Puerto Rico), making a total of 49 appearances for the national team.
/// AFA Press
lost gem
Seven months before the North American World Cup, which begins on June 11 at Mexico’s Azteca Stadium, Scaloni’s “draft” includes many other names besides Romero, Molina and Alvarez. And obviously Messi.
Also on that list are goalkeepers Emiliano Martinez and Geronimo Rulli. The defenders are Gonzalo Montiel, Nicolas Otamendi, Nicolas Tagliafico and Leonardo Balerdi. Midfielders Rodrigo de Paul, Enzo Fernandes, Alexis McAllister, Leandro Paredes, Giovani Lo Celso, Execuel Palacios, Giuliano Simeone, Thiago Almada and Nicolás González. and attackers Lautaro Martinez and Franco Mastantuono. True to his own style, the director is careful. “You never know what will happen. We have experience from the last World Cup where players fell.”
Within the scope of the alternatives managed by Scaloni, the other five players from Cordoba who took part in the qualification process for next year’s ecumenical event – Paulo Dybala, Lucas Beltran, Bruno Zappelli, Enzo Barrenetxea and Mariano Troilo – will not appear, at least a priori. In this sense, the most concrete expectations are placed on Panichelli, whose outstanding presence in French football makes him the 15th Cordoba footballer to be mentioned in this cycle. Renzo Sarabia, Fabricio Bustos, Franco Vazquez, Cristian Pavón, Matias Suárez, Guido Herrera and Adolfo Gaich were also other locals aboard ‘La Scaloneta’.
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