The World Cup traditionally brings together a real constellation of football players, but at the same time, it happens every time that one of the stars, for a number of reasons, is left out of the world forum with teams that have not passed qualification. The Sportstavki.online project offers a dozen of football players who will miss the 2018 World Cup together with their teams.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon)
More recently, the best African footballer once chose the option with the Gabon national team, although he could play for France or Italy - with much greater chances to play in the World Cup, or even win it. But after playing one match for the youth national team of France, Aubameyang changed his mind about playing for Le Bleu, and made a choice in favor of the national team of the historical homeland, for which his father played. Predictably, the top for Aubameyang in such a situation is getting to the African Cup of Nations, but Gabon is not enough to pass the selection for the World Cup, albeit very bright. In the qualifying group with Morocco, Cote d'Ivoire and Mali, Gabon won only one victory and finished third, and the Moroccans will go to the World Cup.
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)
We all remember the tears of the once best goalkeeper in the world on football, Gianluigi Buffon, after the play-off with Sweden, in which the Italian national team could not play a one-goal head start given to an opponent in Scandinavia and flew past the World Cup. Buffon had already won the 2006 World Championship, but he really wanted to visit the World Cup again. Together with him, such strong players as Ciro Immobile, George Chiellini, Leonardo Bonucci, Marco Verratti, Lorenzo Insigne and the entire Italian team will miss the World Cup.
Gareth Bale (Wales)
At the European Championships in France, the Wales national team was a real revelation, reaching the semifinals, where they lost to future champions - Portugal. But this time, Chris Coleman's team was unable to qualify and finished third in the group with Moldova, Georgia, Austria, Ireland and Serbia. In the end, the Irish did not get anywhere either, losing in the playoffs to Denmark Christian Eriksen, but Wales did not miss, and with him - Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey.
Alexis Sanchez (Chile)
The Chileans are America's strongest team, if we take Copa America as the criterion for judging, they won twice in a row, but Chile does not go to the World Cup, since they failed to qualify in the South American group. Everything initially turned out to be somehow clumsy for the team of Juan Antonio Pizzi, and in the end the Chileans were sentenced to fly past the World Cup by Brazil, who beat them for the love of art in a match that did not solve anything for Celesao. After flying past the World Cup, a scandal erupted in Chile, and a number of stars, led by Arturo Vidal, were accused of negligence in playing for the national team and constant drinking in its location. There were fewer complaints against Alexis Sanchez, but he could not guarantee Chile a place at the World Cup. Interestingly, the head coach of the Pizzi team will go to the World Cup - he quickly crossed over to Saudi Arabia.
Christian Pulisic (USA)
The flight of the US national team at the 2018 World Cup turned out to be enchanting - it was not without the intervention of higher forces or the CIA, which considered the trip to Russia for the US footballers an unnecessary risk. Judge for yourself - in order to guarantee themselves a ticket to the World Cup, the Americans had to play a draw with the obvious outsider of the selection Trinidad and Tobago, but the Stars and Stripes lost this match. But even this was not enough for the passage of the United States - it was necessary that Honduras and Panama beat Mexico and Costa Rica, which happened not without judicial help in favor of the winners, but in some places and not without the desire of unmotivated leaders of the selection to lose. As a result, America remained fifth, having missed even a chance to play in the playoffs with Australia, and Christian Pulisic from Borussia, as well as Clint Dempsey, who is still capable of much at least as a substitute, will not go to the World Cup.
Jan Oblak (Slovenia)
Slovenia's national team is a typical European middle peasant, but this team has two great goalkeepers who are among the best in the world - Jan Oblak and Samir Handanovic. Alas, they cannot score goals, and with this Slovenia had big problems in the selection, where they failed to get ahead of England, Slovakia and Scotland in their group. Moreover, it was this group that became the one where the second place did not give the right to play in the playoffs, since too often there were draws here, including thanks to the play of Jan Oblak.
Andrey Yarmolenko (Ukraine)
For the Ukrainian national team, the desire to get to the 2018 World Cup was not at all obvious, since, for political reasons, it would probably not have gone there anyway. But Andriy Shevchenko's team on the football field tried as best they could and were close to making their way to the playoffs from a very strong group, where there were four participants in the Euro 2016 group round at once - Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey and Croatia. As a result, the Icelanders became the first here, and Ukraine lost the second place, losing in the last match to Croatia. Many breathed a sigh of relief when the problem of "Ukraine at the World Cup in Russia" was resolved by itself, but for Andrey Yarmolenko and Yevhen Konoplyanka, the chance to play at the World Cup may no longer be presented.
Edin Dzeko (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Bosnia and Herzegovina played at the World Cup in Brazil, but now was not good enough to qualify in the group with Belgium and Greece, which were ahead of the Bosnians. Edin Dzeko is the main star of the national team of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he tried his best, scored five goals, but his team could not even get ahead of Greece, and Belgium simply swept through the selection hurricane, leaving no one a chance for first place in group N. Together with Dzeko flies past the World Cup and Miralem Pjanic from Juventus.
Arjen Robben (Holland)
Arjen Robben with performances in the national team, like Gianluigi Buffon - gave up. But this only happened after the Bayern winger scored six goals in the qualifying round for the 2018 World Cup, where his team could not bypass not only France, but also Sweden - a team that ultimately upset Buffon. Holland is in general going through an extremely painful generational change and is missing a big tournament for the second time in a row. Now she was accepted by Ronald Koeman, whom the Dutch federation has long begged to take up the national team and the chances that Holland will be at the next Euro are great. But Arjen Robben will no longer be in it, as will Wesley Sneijder, Martin Stekelenburg and a number of other veterans.
Chris Wood (New Zealand)
We include Chris Wood more in this list for a wider geography and filling all continental associations - New Zealand, after Australia left for the Asian confederation, remained the only sensible national team in Oceania, but FIFA does not give a direct ticket for this zone to the World Cup. Thus, New Zealand had to play with Peru and the kiwis were unable to pass the conquistadors. But there is no doubt that New Zealand could have a star at the World Cup right now - Chris Wood of Burnley has gained terrific form after injury and scores in the Premier League in almost every game.In the future, he can move to a stronger club or rise together with the Claret's, progressing every year, and New Zealand will have its own extra-class striker. However, there would be a couple of more players of this level to him - only then one could dream of going to the World Cup.
Bets on the World Cup can be made in the 1xbet mobi application or on the stationary website of the 1xbet bookmaker - there is a line for the World Cup, both in individual matches and throughout the tournament, the favorites of which are Germany and Brazil.
Earlier we wrote about most expensive footballers at the 2018 World Cup in Russia.