Argentina World Cup squad: preliminary list confirmed

After an interminable television build-up which saw singing presenters, a chef handing Alejandro Sabella and AFA officials finger food and an awful lot of comments about how TV Pública will show ‘the whole World Cup to the whole of this beautiful country’ (don’t mention that they’ve only got 32 of the games live, with the other 32 to be shown on delay), Alejandro Sabella’s preliminary list of 30 for Argentina’s Brazil 2014 World Cup preparations has finally been confirmed. There are one or two slight surprises – Manchester City’s Martín Demichelis is called up for the first time since an error away to Bolivia in qualifying, whilst River Plate’s Gabriel Mercado gets an unexpected place on the list – but the 25 or so we’d have expected are all there. Read on for the list.

Goalkeepers
Sergio Romero (Monaco)
Mariano Andújar (Catania)
Agustín Orión (Boca Juniors)

Defenders
Ezequiel Garay (Benfica)
Federico Fernández (Napoli)
Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City)
Marcos Rojo (Sporting)
José María Basanta (Monterrey)
Hugo Campagnaro (Internazionale)
Nicolás Otamendi (Atlético-MG)
Martín Demichelis (Manchester City)
Gabriel Mercado (River Plate)
Lisandro López (Getafe)

Midfielders
Fernando Gago (Boca Juniors)
Lucas Biglia (Lazio)
Javier Mascherano (Barcelona)
Éver Banega (Newell’s Old Boys)
Ángel Di María (Real Madrid)
Maximiliano Rodríguez (Newell’s Old Boys)
Ricardo Álvarez (Internazionale)
Augusto Fernández (Celta de Vigo)
Enzo Pérez (Benfica)
José Sosa (Atlético de Madrid)
Fabián Rinaudo (Catania)

Forwards
Sergio Agüero (Manchester City)
Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Gonzalo Higuaín (Napoli)
Ezequiel Lavezzi (Paris Saint-Germain)
Rodrigo Palacio (Internazionale)
Franco Di Santo (Werder Bremen)

Sabella’s clearly already got the list of 23 in his head – or at least, given one or two of these players’ recent form, I suspect he’ll know at least four or five of the seven to be dropped from this list (my own guesses as to those names appear slightly lighter in the list above, though some of course have a better chance than others of playing their way into the final squad in the two upcoming friendlies). So before you ask, no; Franco Di Santo almost certainly isn’t actually going to the World Cup ahead of Carlos Tevez.

And because I feel silly, here is that list broken down by number of players called up per club. All players are listed above (and here) by the club they’ve played the second half of the now-ending European season for – so if they’re on loan (as is the case with Romero at Monaco, or Otamendi at Atlético Mineiro, for instance), the club who own them have been ignored for these purposes.

1: Monaco; Sporting; Atlético Mineiro; Monterrey; River Plate; Getafe; Lazio; Real Madrid;  Atlético de Madrid; Celta de Vigo; Paris Saint-Germain; Werder Bremen

2: Catania; Boca Juniors; Newell’s Old Boys; Benfica; Barcelona; Napoli

3: Internazionale; Manchester City