{"id":2824,"date":"2026-04-06T10:54:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=2824"},"modified":"2026-04-06T10:54:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T10:54:48","slug":"best-xi-who-wont-be-playing-at-the-2026-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=2824","title":{"rendered":"Best XI Who WON\u2019T Be Playing at the 2026 World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n      <!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>The 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup are now set in stone. As such, a few nations had to miss out \u2013 some of them playing host to some genuinely world class players. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Players from teams such as Poland, Nigeria and Italy will not be featuring at this year\u2019s World Cup \u2013 as such, we put together an XI of the best players who missed out on the tournament. Do you agree with our picks?<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1075372116\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><\/p>\n<p>Gianluigi Donnarumma might be the best goalkeeper in the world \u2013 nevertheless, after a penalty shoot-out against Bosnia &#038; Herzegovina in which he failed to save a single spot kick, he won\u2019t be featuring at the World Cup this year.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/mancitynews.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Manchester City<\/a> man certainly isn\u2019t the only Italian player to feature in this XI \u2013 we\u2019ll see more from them soon enough.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">RB: Matty Cash<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1075288422\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><\/p>\n<p>Aston Villa\u2019s Matty Cash was born in Slough, but has 25 caps under his belt for Poland \u2013 he qualified for international inclusion through his mother. Nevertheless, he couldn\u2019t do much to help them reach the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>A late goal for Sweden from Viktor Gyokeres broke Polish hearts in a 3-2 thriller. It was a hugely entertaining game \u2013 it\u2019s a massive shame that either team had to miss out. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">CB: Strahinja Pavlovi\u0107<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1075267880\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><\/p>\n<p>Strahinja Pavlovic is amongst the best young defenders in the world \u2013 he\u2019ll get another chance at the World Cup, being just 24 years of age, but he won\u2019t be featuring at this year\u2019s iteration of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>He already has a startling 54 caps for Serbia \u2013 nevertheless, they finished third in their group, losing three of their last six qualification games. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">CB: Riccardo Calafiori<\/h2>\n<p><smartframe-embed customer-id=\"0fab81ce12e48a0794275e1d82449fb1\" image-id=\"1075317119\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 100%;\"\/><!-- https:\/\/smartframe.io\/embedding-support --><\/p>\n<p>Riccardo Calafiori looks set to win the Premier League title with Arsenal at the end of the season, barring a major nosedive in form \u2013 this should soften the blow of him failing to qualify for the World Cup with Italy.<\/p>\n<p>Italy have now failed to qualify for three World Cups in a row \u2013 this is unprecedented for a team who have previously won the competition. <\/p>\n<p>      <!-- Article End -->\n    <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 48 teams at the 2026 World Cup are now set in stone. As such, a few nations had to miss out \u2013 some of them playing host to some genuinely world class players. Players from teams such as Poland, Nigeria and Italy will not be featuring at this year\u2019s World Cup \u2013 as such, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}