Haaland, Benzema & Co. - The top players to miss out on the 2022 World Cup

When the 2022 World Cup officially kicked off in Qatar on Sunday night, the new most valuable footballer in the world had to watch from home. Erling Haaland, upgraded to €170 million in the Premier League market value update earlier this month and now ranking ahead of Kylian Mbappé (€160m), failed to qualify with Norway despite scoring five goals in six games. Also, because the 22-year-old missed four important matches in the fall of 2021 due to injury, from which his teammates only got one win (2-0 against Montenegro). Haaland is one of a total of 21 players with a market value of over €50m who are not in action in Qatar, either because they did not qualify, because they are injured or because they were not called up.

In addition to Haaland, the former also applies to his Norwegian teammate Martin Ødegaard (€60m) and Liverpool forwards Mohamed Salah (€80m/Egypt) and Luis Díaz (€75m/Colombia), as well as to Italy internationals Nicolò Barella (€70m), Federico Chiesa (€60m) and Alessandro Bastoni (€55m). Also not qualified are Victor Osimhen (€70m/Nigeria), Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (€60m/Georgia), Milan Skriniar (€60m/Slovakia), Andrew Robertson (€55m/Scotland) and David Alaba (€55m/Austria), among others.

Whether it is worse not to have qualified or not to be called up is probably debatable. In the higher market value range, the latter applies to players from Spain, England and France in particular. With a market value of €60m, Three Lions winger Jadon Sancho is the most valuable footballer, who was not called up for the tournament by his national team coach.

2022 World Cup: Cucurella not called up - James injured

Chelsea summer signing Marc Cucurella (€55m/Spain) is also missing in Qatar, although a competitor in the left-back position, José Gayà (€40m), has suffered a last-minute injury. The Valencia defender was replaced by Barcelona youngster Alejandro Balde (€15m). The 19-year-old had never been called up by head coach Luis Enrique before. However, Cucurella has also only played for Spain once: 45 minutes in a friendly against Lithuania (4-0) in the summer of 2021.

Particularly unlucky were the players who, like Gayà, picked up injuries at short notice. Among others, this happened to RB Leipzig’s Chelsea target Christopher Nkunku in a duel with Eduardo Camavinga when training with the French national team. Nkunku, with a market value of €80m one of the 25 most valuable footballers in the world, had to leave the camp. He was replaced by Randal Kolo Muani (€30m) of Eintracht Frankfurt. Karim Benzema will also have to watch the World Cup at home. The Ballon d’Or winner injured his left thigh in training on Saturday evening.

Already much earlier, Chelsea defenders Reece James (€70m/England) and Wesley Fofana (€65m/France), who have been out injured since early and mid-October respectively, had to bury their World Cup dreams. Germany international Florian Wirtz (€70m) has since recovered from his cruciate ligament rupture, but the World Cup would have come too soon, as he himself admitted. Like Wirtz, Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal (€60m) has been out for months with a torn ACL as well.

Mané and Jota among most valuable players missing the World Cup

In addition to those mentioned so far, Sadio Mané (€60m/Senegal), whose absence was only recently confirmed, and Diogo Jota (€55m/Portugal) are also missing among the players with a market value of more than €50m. The Liverpool forward has been suffering from a calf injury since mid-October.