As the 55 man preliminary World Cup squad for European Champions Spain is announced, here is what that means for Real Madrid first team players
The World Cup in North America will take kick off just 30 days from now, when Mexico face South Africa in a rematch of the opening game at the 2010 iteration of the tournament. Safe to say that Real Madrid fans are already looking forward to the season ending and the tournament beginning.
Nations have until the 30th of May to announce their final, 26 man squads for the tournament, but a preliminary, 55 man squad had to be submitted this week.
These enlarged squads do not have to be announced publicly like the final 26, but there are as always, lots of reports from the media. For example, we know Vinicius is in the Brazil 55 man squad. Meanwhile, Argentina have actually confirmed that Franco Mastantuono is in theirs.
Spain, like Brazil, have not publicly announced their preliminary squad. However, several Spanish media outlets, including Marca, have been reporting who has made the initial cut and who hasn’t.
According to these rumours, Fran Garcia, Dean Huijsen and Gonzalo Garcia are included in the 55 man squad. Meanwhile, on the other hand, Dani Carvajal, Alvararo Carreras and Dani Ceballos have been left out by manager Luis De La Fuente.
Pretty brutal for Carreras. He has seen F. Garcia take his place in the starting XI, and subsequently overtaken him in the pecking order for the national team. It is unlikely he makes the final cut over Marc Cucurella and Alejandro Grimaldo, but you never know.
As for Ceballos, that was always going to be the case. But for Carvajal, much harder for him to take. He was a key player for Spain as they won the Euros as recently as 2024. Things have just not been the same for him since that ACL injury three months later.
Nice to see G.Garcia get some recognition. With former Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata now seemingly out of the picture, and Samu Aghehowa out of the tournament with an ACL injury, the European Championd are certainly lacking number nine options. You certainly never know.
As for Huijsen, it has been a so and so debut season at Real Madrid for the defender, but you can clearly see his potential. He played 90 minutes in Spain’s most recent game, a 0-0 draw in a friendly against Egypt two months ago. He probably has a decent chance of making the final 26. Let’s see.
So, a reminder; Huijsen, F. Garcia and G. Garcia are in Spain's 55 man preliminary squad, whilst Carvajal, Carreras and Ceballos are not.
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