World Cup 2018: 5 biggest snubs in national squads

#2 Mauro Icardi (Argentina)

Mauro Icardi has been left out of Argentina's World Cup squad

Consider this: Player A, Player B, and Player C play in the same league. Player A scored 29 goals and provided 1 assist this season and was the leading goal scorer in the league while Player B had 16 goals and 6 assists and Player C had 22 goals and 5 assists.

It would seem like a foregone conclusion that Player A makes it to his country’s squad, ahead of players B and C. However, players B and C were picked over him while A was left out altogether. Player A is Mauro Icardi, Player B is Gonzalo Higuain and Player C is Paulo Dybala.

The competition for Argentina’s forward places was always going to be intense, and a big name was bound to miss out, but leaving out Icardi makes little sense from a footballing viewpoint.

Argentina are taking Sergio Aguero, whose fitness is suspect, to Russia and Higuain, whom Icardi has thoroughly outperformed this season, but could not find a place for Icardi in the squad.

The reason for leaving out Icardi is not clear and the conspiracy theories continue to swirl surrounding his exclusion, all related to his situation with Maxi Lopez, who is close friends with the rest of the national squad, but holding the nation’s chances at the World Cup ransom because of an issue involving a player who is now nowhere near the team, is not right and Icardi should feel hard done by this decision.

Mauro Icardi is a difference maker. He is one of the best finishers right now in world football, and leaving him out for two strikers with major doubts over their heads could well backfire come the business end of the tournament. Jorge Sampaoli has gotten Argentina’s front line all wrong and he will desperately hope he does not regret the decision made on Icardi.