What do Scaloni and his coaching staff think about the players of the National Team who changed clubs on the threshold of the World Cup in Qatar

Until September 1 the list can be increased. That day will close the transfer market in most European leagues. For now, there are six footballers in the Argentine national team who changed clubs less than four months before the start of the Qatar World Cup 2022: Nahuel Molina moved from Udinese to Atlético de Madrid, Lisandro Martinez will play for Manchester United after his time at Ajax, Nicholas Tagliafico he is at Olympique de Lyon after defending the colors of Ajax, Angel Di Maria he left PSG for Juventus, Paulo Dybala is the new figure of Roma after his successful walk in Juventus and Julian Alvarez left River Plate to join Manchester City.

If there are no unforeseen events, the six will go to the World Cup. Lionel Scaloni and his coaching staff are very attentive to every movement made by the players who will travel to Qatar. Their main concern is that all the players reach the World Cup with as much continuity as possible. “Hopefully the guys who changed clubs can play a lot of minutes. It would be very important that they can avoid the famous adaptation periods. The Selection would benefit a lot if everyone arrives with filming, ”he said, in dialogue with Infobaeone of Scaloni’s most trusted people.

The list of those who began to breathe new football airs could stretch in the coming days. Leandro Paredes he would leave PSG to play for Juventus with his friend Video Say Maria. Y Giovanni Lo Celso He would leave English Tottenham as he was not among the priorities of the Italian coach Antonio Conte. Villarreal, the Spanish club where he comes from being on loan and reaching the semifinals of the European Champions League, and Napoli compete for the former Rosario Central midfielder, for whose pass Tottenham intends about 20 million euros.

Of the half dozen footballers who have already changed teams, there are three who are headlines in Scaloni’s consideration: Molina on the right side, Tagliafico on the left and Di María in attack. The other three are regular substitutes: Lisandro Martínez, Dybala and Julián Alvarez. Regardless of this, Scaloni intends that the 26 footballers that he will take to Qatar arrive with the greatest possible filming at the highest football competition on the planet.

These days, the coach himself and his main collaborators (field assistants Roberto Ayala, Walter Samuel and Pablo Aimar) are in contact with all those who can be called up and especially with the six who have just changed clubs: they ask how they feel, how they adapt to their new teams, they encourage them; in short, they make them feel that they are important to the structure of the selected team.

A footballer who would stay out of the World Cup today but who is closely followed by Scaloni also recently changed clubs: he is Lucas Alario, who went from Bayer Leverkusen to Eintracht Frankfurt, champion of the Europa League. And there are two who knew how to be on the coach’s radar who are wanted by other clubs. the archer Agustin Marchesin, about to move from Porto to Celta and Almería. And Giovanni Simeone, scorer for Hellas Verona, who could continue his career at Napoli and is also followed by Borussia Dortmund.

In turn, Scaloni and company eagerly await the ruling of the TAS on the appeal presented by the AFA so that they consider the classic against Brazil won. which was suspended in September 2021 in São Paulo, in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, due to the irruption of health authorities from that country on the playing field. The AFA wants Argentina to consider the match won, which -according to FIFA- should be played on September 23 at the Corinthians stadium. “We hope that the ruling will be known no later than August 15, because we want to plan the September FIFA window in time,” said an important AFA source.

The FIFA date for September will be extended from the 19th to the 27th of that month and the AFA’s intention is to play two friendlies. If FIFA confirms the holding of the match against Brazil for Friday, September 23, it is very possible that on the 26th or 27th the National Team will play a match in Argentina to say goodbye to the public before the World Cup, which will be played from November 21 to 18. December due to the very high temperatures in Qatar in June and July, the months in which the competition is historically held.

On the other hand, if the TAS agrees with the AFA, Argentina’s friendlies could be played in Europe or the United States since there are proposals to play them in both places.

In any case, the main concern for Scaloni is that the players arrive in good physical and football shape at the World Cup, that object of desire that Argentina has been pursuing for 36 years.

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