A host of footballing nations has announced their initial World Cup squad for this year's footballing extravaganza in South Africa. The latest to announce was the Argentinian coach Diego Maradona. As expected Maradona has surprised many by omiting a host of this season's best performing players. You may be excused, if you believe that Maradona has gone crazy after over-looking the Inter Milan duo of Zanetti and Cambiasso for the initial 30 man squad. He now has to trim it to the 23 man final squad list. When you see the names of Fabricio Coloccini and Heinze, a player seriously in the end of his career, you will be forced to question the logic of omitting two of the most sensationally performing defensive midfielders in world football. Another high profile name who is missing is FC Barcelona's Gabriel Milito. But it should be upto the lack of playing time, but seeing how Martin Demichelis have performed in recent Bayern Munich's matches in Europe, I would have seriously preferred Milito. Another name which is missing is Real Madrid midfielder, Fernando Gago. He was never expected to make into the first eleven, but was widely expected to make the trip to South Africa. Maradona looks like have preferred players who play in Argentina rather than the usual trend of picking Europe based players. This could backfire spectacularly as the quality experience could be handy in the World Cups. For the record Lionel Messi has been named in the 30 men squad and let's hope Maradona won't cut his name out.Crucial Updates : Jonathan Dos Santos makes into 26 men Mexican Initial Squad along with his brother Giovanni.
If you thought Maradona was a lone case, you are horribly wrong. Actually French Coach, Raymond Domenech shocked everyone precisely 12 hours before Maradona announced his squad. The French national coach sursprisingly could not find a place for Karim Benzema, Samir Nasri and Patrick Vierra in the 30 men squad list. Meanwhile Djibril Cissé, has made a spectacular comeback after having a great season in Greece. Benzema has been struggling for playing time at Real Madrid, but it's a huge surprise to see his name missing in the list. Meanwhile Nasri will be wondering what went wrong with his case. Meanwhile Spain's national coach, Vincente del Bosque has announced a overall good looking 30 man squad. The ones to miss out are Bojan Krkic and Sergio Canales. Barcelona's Pedro and Valdes have made it into the list. The failure of Bojan Krkic to make it into the squad should be upto Guardiola's initial lack of confidence in him which saw him getting very less playing time. Del Bosque has surprised many by including five goal keepers in the squad of 30. Now it is sure that two of them will miss out and I have a feeling that Valdes will not be one of them. Pedro would most probably see his name not making into the final list. For Spain, it is the problem of planety. They have a huge amount of wonderful talent to pick out from. Just look at the Forward line-up - Santiago Cazorla (Villarreal), Jesus Navas (Sevilla), Juan Manuel Mata (Valencia), Pedro Rodriguez (Barcelona), Daniel Guiza (Fenerbache), Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao), Alvaro Negredo (Sevilla), Fernando Torres (Liverpool), David Villa (Valencia). Out of this Villa, Torres, Llorente, Mata will make the list for sure. The rest most probably will miss out maybe except Guiza. Vicente del Bosque will be looking to cut most number of names from the Forward line-up when he prepares the final 23 man squad. The midfield and Defensive squad does not give him much options to omit.