FIFA World Cup 2018: Spain XI that will not be playing in Russia

Forwards: Jose Callejon, Alvaro Morata and Pedro Rodriguez

Callejon scored 10 and assisted 10 in the Serie A this season

The three forwards in this list have previously played for either Real Madrid or Barcelona after graduating from their academy but it would be fair to say that Diego Costa, Iago Aspas, Rodrigo Moreno and Lucas Vazquez have rightfully earned their place.

Jose Callejon has been one of the first names on Napoli’s team sheet since he arrived in 2013 and it is evident from the fact that, he has played 188 out a maximum possible 190 league games for the Serie A side in five seasons!

In all competitions, he has played 257 games for the club predominantly as a right-sided winger and has an incredible return of 75 goals and 50 assists. He had a return of exactly 10 goals and 10 assists this season in the Serie A.

Despite his consistency at club level, Callejon has only been capped by Spain five times and hence it comes as no surprise that he has been left out of the squad.

Morata has 12 goals in his previous 17 games for Spain

Like Callejon, Morata is another Castilla product in this XI.

Morata has 13 goals in 23 games for Span of which he scored 12 in 17 games across 2016 and 2017. This suggests that he was clearly in the manager’s plans for the FIFA World Cup but a poor season with Chelsea has ended with him losing his World Cup spot to Valencia’s versatile Rodrigo Moreno who scored 19 goals this season.

Moreno’s tally of 19 goals in 44 games is four more than Morata’s return of 15 goals despite the latter playing four games more.

Pedro has been reduced to a squad player at Chelsea

Completing the XI, is another Chelsea forward, Pedro Rodriguez who is also a World Cup and Euro winner. The former Barcelona man has 67 caps for Spain and he has 17 goals in those games.

Pedro has struggled since his move to Chelsea although he had a good season in 2016-17 when Chelsea won the league title. This season, he has been vastly utilized as a squad member as he has made only 17 starts in the league for a Chelsea side that had its fair share of goalscoring issues.

The 30-year-old’s gradual dip in form in recent years and the emergence of young talent like Marco Asensio in recent years means that he is unlikely to feature for Spain in the near future.