Nine Catalans and no Real Madrid players on Spain's list for the World Cup
Barça is, by far, the most represented club in Luis de la Fuente's call-up
BarcelonaThe absolute Spanish men's coach, Luis de la Fuente, announced this Monday at noon the list of Spain's called-up players for the next football World Cup. The coach of la roja will concentrate in the coming weeks and during the World Cup event a group of players with a significant presence of Catalan players (a total of nine) and from Barça, which is by far the club with the most representation (eight men) in a squad that for the first time in history has no Real Madrid members. From Atlético de Madrid, Arsenal, and Athletic Club, there are three players per team. The rest of the clubs contributing talent (Chelsea, Manchester City, Osasuna, Celta de Vigo, Real Sociedad, PSG, Tottenham, Bayer Leverkusen, and Crystal Palace) do so with a single footballer.
The call-up was made official through a video featuring Felipe VI, De la Fuente himself, and several anonymous citizens who, one by one, announced the names of all the players called up for the World Cup.
Goalkeepers (3): Unai Simón (Athletic Club), David Raya (Arsenal) and Joan Garcia (Barça).
Defenders (7): Pedro Porro (Tottenham), Eric Garcia (Barça), Pau Cubarsí (Barça), Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Club), Marc Pubill (Atlètic de Madrid), Marc Cucurella (Chelsea) and Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen).
Midfielders (9): Rodri Hernández (Manchester City), Martín Zubimendi (Arsenal), Marcos Llorente (Atlètic de Madrid), Pedri González (Barça), Pablo Gavi (Barça), Dani Olmo (Barça), Álex Baena (Atlètic de Madrid), Mikel Merino (Arsenal) and Fabián Ruiz (PSG).
Forwards (7):Lamine Yamal Nasraoui (Barça), Nico Williams (Athletic Club), Borja Iglesias (Celta de Vigo), Mikel Oyarzabal (Reial Societat), Víctor Muñoz (Osasuna), Yéremy Pino (Crystal Palace) and Ferran Torres (Barça).
In addition to the 26 chosen, among whom is the injured Fermín López, De la Fuente has called up nine "support" players who will participate in the first part of the training camp: Marc Bernal (Barça), Javi Rodríguez (Celta de Vigo), Jesús Rodríguez (Como), Leo Román (Mallorca), Gonzalo García (Real Madrid), Jon Martín, Sergio Gómez, Beñat Turrientes (Reial Societat) and Javi Guerra (Valencia).
On the Barça front, the coach's choice rewards the great season that Joan Garcia and Eric Garcia have had with Barça. The goalkeeper enters the World Cup list with only one appearance for the senior national team, while the defender from Martorell returns to a call-up after almost four years. The last time he was a senior international was under Luis Enrique in a qualifying match for the Qatar World Cup (2022), a tournament in which he did not play a single minute despite being called up by the Asturian coach.
