Berlin (DPA)
Football’s biggest stars are usually supposed to take part in the game’s biggest tournament, the World Cup, but sometimes that doesn’t work.
Every four years, a group of prominent stars face the disappointment of missing out on the World Cup, including those from countries that do not have a great place and history in the game.
There are a large number of great stars who did not have the opportunity to participate in any World Cup finals, including Alfredo Di Stefano, Ryan Giggs, George Best and Eric Cantona, who had wonderful careers but did not include participation in the World Cup.
The current stars, Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, Swedish Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, had the opportunity to participate in previous versions of the World Cup, but they are now pursuing what is considered the last chance to participate again in the World Cup, given their age.
Ibrahimovic and Lewandowski certainly had an amazing career at club level as well as on the international level, winning titles and records.
Lewandowski is at the top of the list of Poland’s stars in terms of the number of international participations “128 games” and the number of goals with the national team, where he scored 74 goals. Ibrahimovic also leads the list of Sweden’s top scorer with 62 goals with the national team.
But neither of them has so far achieved great success in the World Cup.
Sweden and Poland were not among the strong candidates for the big titles, and both stars participated in the World Cup once.
Ibrahimovic was among the Swedish national team that reached the last 16 in the 2006 World Cup, while Lewandowski participated with the Polish national team in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Ibrahimovic, who will return to the national team in March 2021, will be 41 years old when the 2022 World Cup begins in Qatar.
As for Lewandowski, he will be 34 years old in the Qatar World Cup, and therefore his participation in the 2026 World Cup cannot be largely ruled out, but the Qatar World Cup may be his last chance as well.
But the participation of Ibrahimovic and Lewandowski together in the World Cup in Qatar will be impossible, as the two teams will compete with each other for the qualification for the finals by facing them tomorrow, Tuesday, in the final of the European playoff.
As for Cristiano Ronaldo, he is looking forward to participating in the World Cup for the fifth time in his career.
Ronaldo participated for the first time in the World Cup in the 2006 edition that was held in Germany, and the Portuguese team ranked fourth at the time, but he did not succeed in exceeding the round of sixteen in three editions after that.
Although Ronaldo climbed to the podium with the Portuguese national team in the European Nations Cup “Euro 2016”, the Portuguese star is still looking to improve his record through the World Cup.
But the team needs to overcome the obstacle of North Macedonia in the confrontation scheduled between them tomorrow, Tuesday, in order to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar.
The Portuguese national team is the most likely candidate in tomorrow’s match, but the confrontation cannot be considered settled, especially after the surprise of the North Macedonia team, which ousted the European champions Italy from the semi-finals of the European supplement.
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