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The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers have turned their last pages in most of the world’s continents with the exit of teams whose players shine every weekend in the most prominent European tournaments. Perhaps the most prominent absentees from the World Cup Qatar are Egyptian Mohamed Salah and Algerian Riyad Mahrez, after their countries came out with a scenario that will not be easily forgotten. Also absent from the first World Cup organized in the Middle East will be the rising Norwegian star Erling Haaland and the Swedish veteran Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
won’t know Qatar World Cup 2022 For football, some teams that include international stars such as Algeria and its warrior Riyad Mahrez, Egypt and its pharaoh Mohamed Salah, Norway and its rising star Erling Halland, Sweden and its veteran player Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Even within the Doha World Cup, the presence of Argentine stars Lionel Messi and Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, who have almost completely dominated the title of best player in the world in recent years, will be absent from the football wedding.
Messi and Ronaldo will participate for the fifth time in a row to enter a private club that includes German Lothar Matthaus, Mexican goalkeeper Antonio Carvajal, Mexican Rafael Marques and Italian Gianluigi Buffon.
Salah and the curse of penalty kicks
Salah, who is having a great season in the ranks of Liverpool, will not be able to lead his country to the second World Cup in succession, losing against Senegal on penalties, after he advanced 1-0 in the first leg and lost to him with the same result back.
Salah, 29, missed a penalty kick by throwing it over the crossbar during the second leg.
Salah had participated in the finals of the World Cup Russia 2018, and after he missed the opening match against Uruguay due to a shoulder injury he sustained after being harassed by Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos in the Champions League final, he participated in the next two matches in the group stage and scored a goal against each of Russia and Saudi Arabia.
A hard disappointment for Mahrez
As for the Algerian Riyad Mahrez, 31, he must wait four more years for the possibility of participating in the finals for the second time in his career, which saw him crowned the English Premier League champion in the ranks of Leicester City in 2016 and was chosen as the best player in the league at the end of that year, then crowned a champion in the ranks of Manchester City, and also managed to lead his country to winning the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Egypt.
After the Algerian national team took a big step towards reaching the finals with its victorious return from Cameroon 1-0, it lost by the same result at the end of the original time, and then 1-2 after the extension in a dramatic way and at the last gasp.
World Cup without Ibrahimovic
In turn, the Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovic will not be able to participate in the Qatar World Cup as well, because his team fell in the play-off against Poland and its top scorer, Robert Lewandowski, in the European play-off, with a score of 0-2.
The veteran Milan striker participated in the 2002 World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan, and in the World Cup in Germany four years later without leaving any imprint.
Ibrahimovic, who is known for his lack of modesty and his glorifying statements about himself, is the author of the famous phrase “The World Cup without Zlatan is not the World Cup.”
“As long as I can maintain my level and play and contribute something, I hope,” said Ibrahimovic, who revealed that he panicked at the thought of retiring.
On the other hand, the striker of Norway and Borussia Dortmund, the German club, Erling Haaland, 21, was Yemeni, by showing his heels in the largest international forum, but his country’s team failed to be present in the football wedding.
Perhaps Halland’s only consolation is that he is still at the beginning of his career and can compensate in future editions, as is the case with Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who contributed to his country’s victory in the European Cup last summer and was chosen as the best goalkeeper in the tournament, but he was a victim of the decline of his team’s level, so he paid the price through Italy’s absence from the World Cup for the second time in a row.
Among the other notable absentees, Napoli and Nigeria striker Victor Osimhen, after his country’s goal difference scored outside the home by Ghana (0-zero back and 1-1 back), and Colombia playmaker James Rodriguez, top scorer in the 2014 World Cup Brazil after his country ranked in the center Sixth in the South American Qualifiers.
FRANCE 24/AFP/