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THREE DEBUTANTS IN, AS SAMPAOLI UNVEILS ARGENTINA’S PRELIMINARY SQUAD

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Three of the players announced are debutants. They are: Franco Armani, Ricardo Centurion and Rodrigo Battaglia. Armani plays for with Atlético Nacional in Colombia.

Ricardo Centurion, on the other hand had played for Argentina at the U-20 level in 2013. He played in two of the four games that Argentina played, before falling in the group stage.

Battaglia also played for the youth team. He was part of the team that finished 3rd in the South American U-20 in February 2011.

The full list with players’ ages in bracket runs thus:

 

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Goalkeepers:  Wilfredo Caballero (36), Nahuel Guzmán (32), Sergio Romero (31), Franco Armani (31)

Defenders:  Javier Mascherano (33), Gabriel Mercado (31), Federico Fazio (31), Cristian Ansaldi (31), Nicolás Otamendi (30), Marcos Rojo (28), Eduardo Salvio (27), Ramiro Funes Mori (27), Marcos Acuña (26), Germán Pezzella (26), Nicolás Tagliafico ( 25)

Midfielders: Lucas Biglia (32), Enzo Pérez (32), Pablo Pérez (32), Angel Di María (30), Ever Banega (29), Diego Perotti (29), Guido Pizarro (28), Rodrigo Battaglia (26), Maximiliano Meza (26), Manuel Lanzini (25), Ricardo Centurión (25), Leandro Paredes (23), Giovani Lo Celso (22)

Forwards: Lionel Messi (30), Gonzalo Higuaín (30), Sergio Agüero (29), Mauro Icardi (25), Paulo Dybala (24), Cristian Pavon (22).

 

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Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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