Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Juan Manuel Insaurralde Heading To South Africa?

Today was the deadline for countries headed for the World Cup to submit their 30 man preliminary rosters, and Diego Maradona, coach of Argentina, has included several local players in his list. Amazingly, included in the list is Newell's Old Boys' own Juan Manuel Insaurralde.

Insaurralde has only had one call up, when he was capped as a starter in last week's friendly against Haiti. I can only speculate that his call up was due to Diego having a chat with Rolando Schiavi in one of his call ups for La Albiceleste. Schiavi, on the whole, I'd rate as a better defender, but at 37 might have suggested Manuel as a younger alternative to himself.

In any case, I expect that Insaurralde will be missing from the list once D10S narrows down his roster to the 23 players who will actually make the trip. But then again, Maradona being Maradona, anything could happen.

Here's the full list:

Goalkeepers : Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar/Holland), Mariano Andujar (Catane/Italy), Diego Pozo (Colon)

Defenders : Nicolas Otamendi (Vélez), Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich/Germany), Walter Samuel (Inter/Italy), Gabriel Heinze (Marseille/France), Nicolas Burdisso (Roma/Italy), Ariel Garcé (Colon), Clemente Rodriguez (Estudiantes), Juan Manuel Insaurralde (Newell's), Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle/England).

Midfielders : Jonas Gutiérrez (Newcastle/England), Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool/England), Angel Di Maria (Benfica/Portugal), Juan Mercier (Argentinos), José Sosa (Estudiantes), Javier Pastore (Palermo/Italy), Mario Bolatti (Fiorentina/Italy), Jesus Datolo (Olympiakos/Greece), Sebastian Blanco (Lanus).

Forwards : Lionel Messi (Barcelone/Spain), Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid/Spain), Carlos Tévez (Manchester City/England), Diego Milito (Inter/Italy), Sergio Agüero (Atlético Madrid/Spain), Ezequiel Lavezzi (Naples/Italy), Martin Palermo (Boca).

1 comment:

David Phillips said...

Editor's Note:

The list of 30 is missing one player, Maxi Rodriguez, who started his career with Newell's. His current club is Liverpool in England.

(That's what I get for copying and pasting off a forum posting, folks.)