Germany 2026: Women's Qualifying Team Preview

Coach Gregorio Martínez announced the 24 players who will make up the Senior Pre-selection ahead of the Qualifying Tournament, an event that will take place from March 11 to 17 in Istanbul (Turkey).

With the great dream underway, the Argentine Basketball Confederation (CAB) confirmed the list of 24 players who will make up the Women’s Pre-Selection for the Qualifying Tournament towards the 2026 World Cup Germany. The 12 players chosen from this pre-call will meet in Madrid, Spain, on March 5 to train until the 8th and then travel to Istanbul. From March 11 to 17, the most populated city in Türkiye will host the competition that will put three places at stake for the World Cup.

In this context, coach Gregorio Martínez highlighted the relevance of the moment the team is going through: “It is a very important step to reach this stage. Sometimes we do not take the dimension of this, and there is no obligation to do so, but for us it is a very important step that was taken. Getting into this phase of the final qualification for the World Cup is already an achievement in itself. Argentina had not achieved it for a while and now this group has achieved it, so we are very happy with that.”

The call maintains a solid base of the team that participated in the AmeriCup 2025 in Santiago de Chile, where the team reached fourth place and accessed this qualifying event. In relation to that tournament, Andrea Boquete will not be part of the process for personal reasons. In turn, the current list fully retains the structure of the team that won the 2024 South American Championship, also in Chile.

In this regard, Martínez explained the reasons for this continuity: “That’s why we decided to mostly repeat the AmeriCup team, as long as they are all physically well. There is no room to generate internal competition with long training sessions. We are going to go with the same team from Chile, with Andrea Boquete out for personal reasons, who will be replaced. The plan is to work with a reduced tactical scheme and make the most of the few days available.”

With the continuation of Melisa Gretter as captain, the nomination is made up of Giuliana Baccarelli, Gisel Botta, Agostina Burani, Diana Cabrera, Florencia Chagas, Luciana Delabarba, Sol Depetris, Macarena D’Urso, Julia Fernández, Victoria Gauna, Candela Gentinetta, Natassja Kolff, Nerea Lagowski, Agustina Marin, Florencia Martínez, Julieta Mungo, Sofía Novoa, Dalma Piri, Laila Raviolo, Lucila Sampietro, Delfina Saravia, Amaiquen Siciliano and Nicole Tapari.

The coaching staff will continue under the direction and leadership of Gregorio Martínez, to face his sixth year as Head Coach of the Major, consolidating a process that achieved continuity, its own identity and results at a continental level. In that sense, the coach expressed: “I am very happy to lead this team. I have people that I love very much and with whom I identify, from the captains to the players who are joining. I see progress in general and also in women’s basketball in general. Today we can represent that growth of Argentine women’s basketball, and for me that is very clear.”

Another relevant aspect of the call is that more than 70% of the selected players (17) are currently playing in the Women’s League, a figure that once again reflects the growth and importance of the country’s main club tournament as a basis for the development of the national team.

Regarding preparation, Martínez highlighted the difficulties inherent to the calendar: “What I regret most is not being able to train with the team. Every time we played well or performed at our best, both in the South American and in the AmeriCup, we did 30-day processes. The circumstances are these and they are the same for everyone. There are three days of training and we have to try to do the best possible in those three days and reach this dream that we have in the best way possible.”

He also valued the institutional support and commitment of the staff: “We must appreciate the efforts of the Confederation and the players. We leave on March 4 and we are going to have just four training sessions before the tournament. Hopefully we can make good use of them, because many players play in Spain on the 5th and 6th, which means that they will only arrive in Madrid on the 7th in the morning.”

With a round-robin format and five games per team, Argentina will make its debut on March 11 against Australia, while on Thursday it will face the host Türkiye. After a day of rest, they will face Canada, continue on Sunday the 15th against Hungary and close their participation on Tuesday the 17th against Japan. The competition will grant three places to the World Cup, excluding Australia since it is classified by its title in the AsiaCup.

Facing the demands of the tournament, the coach was clear about the team’s positioning: “I’m not afraid to say that we are not candidates and that this is an illusion. But we got this far and, when we get this far, they are going to have to take us out on our feet. I know what this group is capable of, I know what it can fight for. We always ask ourselves the same thing: when the last game ends, we look at each other’s faces knowing that we did everything we could do.”

And he concluded: “I am convinced that the players are going to give their maximum effort. We are not going as tourists, we are going to compete. We will see what we can do. We play against world powers, we are at a very high level, with three teams that are among the ten best in the world, plus the local team and Hungary, which is around 20th place. They are going to be very difficult games in which we are not candidates, but they are going to have to beat us.”