Who’s not coming to the World Cup

On June 11 football fans from every corner of the world will watch their favourite team participate in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. But some of their favourite players are not coming to the World Cup this summer. Below we list all the big names that were left behind - some were surprises, and some players were long out of the competition.

When someone talks about Brazil the first thing that pops into your mind is strikers. Ronaldinho had a few good games with Milan this season, but he is not coming to the 2010 World Cup. The same goes for old timers Ronaldo and Adriano that despite having some great performances this year in the Brazilian league, they are also left behind by coach Dunga.

Diego Maradona’s choices are creating front page news in Argentina, leaving outside of the initial team selection players like Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso that are playing in the Champions League final this month. Pablo Aimar and Lisandro López also had a fantastic season in 2010 but are also out of Maradona’s squad.

Raymond Domenech’s choices are also giving a headache to most French fans, since he left behind two players that are considered the future of France. Karim Benzema of Real Madrid and Samir Nasri of Arsenal were not included in the World Cup 2010 selection, as well as experienced Patrick Vieira.

Ruud van Nistelrooy is 33 years old but still a superb goal scorer, so it was a bit of a surprise for the Netherlands that the second-highest goalscorer in Champions League history will not attend the World Cup in South Africa.

Italian coach Marcello Lippi was accused of selecting older players for Italy in the World Cup, so he made sure to leave behind big names like Francesco Totti (33), Alessandro Del Piero (35), and Luca Toni (32) while at the same time bringing down the team’s average age a bit.

England will be missing one of the biggest stars in international football, David Beckham got injured a month ago so his absence is not really a surprise to anyone, but still adds to the list of big names that are not coming to South Africa.

Germany is missing starting goalkeeper René Adler due to injury, but the biggest surprise was Schalke’s Kevin Kurányi that is currently in top shape. The player has a thing with the coach though since a few years, and has been left out of the national team exactly for that reason.

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