The Argentina team for the September World Cup qualifiers has been announced with Alan Velasco of FC Dallas included as are more new names.
Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni has announced his list of players for the matches against Ecuador and Bolivia in September and it includes 32 names. Paulo Dybala, Marcos Acuña and Gerónimo Rulli are left out due to injuries.
Gio Lo Celso is also not included in the team, despite not being injured. Franco Armani, who missed the last matches against Australia and Indonesia returns to the team.
Lionel Scaloni has included four U23 players which would be training with the U23 team. Lucas Beltran, newly signed to Fiorentina, left back Lucas Esquivel of Athletico Paranaense and midfielder Bruno Zapelli, also of Athletico Paranaense are called up for the first time.
Alan Velasco of FC Dallas gets the call up and will train with the U23 team. That makes it three MLS players included, along with Lionel Messi and Thiago Almada. Here are the names for those two matches:
Goalkeepers:
Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa)
Juan Musso (Udinese)
Walter Benítez (PSV)
Franco Armani (River Plate)
Defenders:
Nahuel Molina (Atletico Madrid)
Germán Pezzella (Real Betis)
Gonzalo Montiel (Nottingham Forest)
Juan Foyth (Villarreal)
Marcos Senesi (Bournemouth)
Lisandro Martínez (Manchester United)
Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur)
Nicolás Tagliafico (Lyon)
Nicolás Otamendi (Benfica)
Lucas Esquivel (Athletico Paranaense, U23 team)
Midfielders:
Leandro Paredes (AS Roma)
Rodrigo De Paul (Atletico Madrid)
Guido Rodríguez (Real Betis)
Facundo Buonanotte (Brighton)
Enzo Fernández (Chelsea)
Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool)
Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen)
Bruno Zapelli (Athletico Paranaense, U23 team)
Thiago Almada (Atlanta United)
Forwards:
Nicolás González (Fiorentina)
Lautaro Martínez (Inter)
Ángel Correa (Atletico Madrid)
Julián Álvarez (Manchester City)
Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United)
Ángel Di María (Benfica)
Lionel Messi (Inter Miami)
Alan Velasco (FC Dallas, U23 team)
Lucas Beltrán (Fiorentina, U23 team)
Per Gastón Edul, Alan Velasco, Bruno Zapelli, Lucas Beltrán and Lucas Esquivel would train with the U23 Olympic team but that does not mean that they cannot train with the senior team. The U23 Olympic team will be released separately.
Alan Velasco seemed a clever player in the match against Inter Miami. Messi likes thinking players who can act differently under challenging situations. It is good to see him in the team. This time the expectations would be high on Lautaro Martinez.
I’m forcing myself not to be negative towards our beloved NT anymore, but I was really looking forward to seeing Redondo on the list.
If he added players like almada. Zapelli, esquivel and Beltran on this pre list Redondo is more than deserved to be on this one too.. hope he gets a last minute call up.. this kid is pure talent. I foresee him jumping over to a big club in Europe real soon..
If Rulli wasn’t hurt , Armani would not be on that list.
This is a good squad. We need to start with solid wins. Get some points on board, with tried and tested team. Once the panic of qualification is gone, he will try to weed out some of the members. I like that approach.
On Lo Celso, it is fine. I like the style of the guy and not a big deal. We won a world cup without him. I have said this before the world cup, we will not win a world cup because of Lo Celso, neither will we lose one because of him.
Also, he had many opportunities in many clubs and had a couple of good solid seasons. It cannot just be everyone else’s fault for his struggle. This Spurs coach likes him. So he can get back to be a regular and Scaloni will call him back for sure.
Alan Velasco is a fantastic young player. He needs to go to Europe and he will definitely be a part of 2026 plans at his current trajectory.
I believe Messi has had a chat with Scaloni regarding Velasco…!
You are probably correct. I see him much farther ahead of Nico Paz, Carboni, and all of the other touted midfielders. He is fantastic. he is much better than Almada. Velasco and Redondo are the next future stars in midfield.
Velasco is not midfielder, a left winger/forward and plays much worse than Almada in MLS.
I partially with Csabalala that Velasco is a winger and Almada is a great player, but not sure Velasco is much worse per se, perhaps because Almada has been there longer
Lo-celso out of the squad! Interesting! I like Scaloni, he doesn’t want less ambitious players in his team. However , in his defense, he may want to have a last go at EPL and prove himself. However, he can’t waste his limited opportunities at Spurs because if he fails to impress then he will be send out on loan in mid season transfer window or rot on the bench to be sold at the end of the season!
And with Enzo , MacAllister , Depaul and Paredes , he has a huge competition to make the bench with the national team also.
Based on player selected.
Martinez. Molina,Romero.otamendi,taglafico.
DePaul Enzo macAllister
Messi Alvarez dimaria…
Pretty much same lineup. We played in scaloni era.
Subs.. lautaro— Alvarez, dimaria–garncaho, macAllister— Guido..
Wow very good squad but Why Armani & Pazzela
…???
Its a good squad…
Medina, Balerdi out Foyth, Senesi in.
Valentin barco, Alan Varela, Gaston Avilla, exequiel zeballos need a shot. But c’mon our aging superstars should retire at some point with only exemption of Messi. Inclusion of two players from Athletico Paranaense did not make that much sense to me.
Don’t know much about Zapelli but Esquivel is a left-back, maybe they want to see him in action because that’s one position we don’t have much depth in and Acuna/Tagliafico are on the wrong side of 30 now.
Zapelli and Beltran in my opinion were brought in mainly to keep away from the Italian robbers. Once they have been registered with the NT, Italy can suck their thumbs. Also, the U23 decided here is not an ironclad list. There will be changes, additions and subtractions here. Masche has generally worked with the sub20, however, since its a preparatory stage for the Olympics, he gets a good look at the talent at disposal who are typically 21/22. Barco being injured didn’t help the cause. But I am pretty certain Equi Fernandez, Barco and Varela should be considered by them. What should also be kept in mind is that for Olympics, none of the leagues are ready to release their main players(none=Most). So keeping that in mind, getting players like Equi, Barco, Varela could be problematic, and therefore Masche has to come up with a more realistic list of the ones who could be delegated.
Lo Celso was omitted, Cremaschi now has a chance lol. A subtle dig from Scaloni to Lo Celso saying that he should have looked for a starting spot somewhere?
Esquivel gets a nod due to aging LBs, I guess…to see what he can show at least in training.
The coaching staff also seem keen on Buonanotte who has not been that impressive for Brighton just yet. He did not play badly, just not that amazing…
Alan Velasco is a good player, clearly MLS does not bother Scaloni and co…
Beltran over Simeone because it seems Scaloni prefers a more well-rounded CF than a poacher type
Add to that lo celso is one the scaloni favourite players, Leave him out sending clear messages to every player unless lo celso is injury af course.
Beltran looks all around striker can dribble running channels so yeah I agree beltran over Simeone plus Italy was coming to him so it’s good move by our coaching staff.
Why Lo celso left out? 😫😫
Because Lo Celso has no shame. He’s willing to be a bench warmer in London rather than joining a new club. Kudos to Scaloni. Almada will be left out next if he stays in MLS for one more month.
It is more like Ange doesnt want Lo Celso out. Otherwise, he would go somewhere else
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