Romario, Baggio, Benzema & the biggest squad selection snubs in World Cup history

Scorer of one of the greatest World Cup goals of all time in the final four years later when he captained the Selecao, the legendary right-back was surprisingly cut from an initial 44-man training squad for England 66 despite being highly rated.

The 37-year-old Djalma Santos – who is similarly iconic – was picked ahead of him and went on to contest his fourth World Cup.

Alberto probably wasn't all that gutted to miss out in the end, though, as Brazil produced their worst-ever performance on football's biggest stage and exited at the group stage.

Despite being just 17 years old, Maradona was already making quite the impression with his goalscoring exploits for Argentinos Juniors, earning a call-up to the Argentina Under-20 side with a home World Cup approaching.

However, pragmatic coach Cesar Luis Menotti didn't back the precocious talent to handle the pressure of the fanfare surrounding a World Cup on Argentine soil at his tender age.

Maradona missed out on a glorious campaign as a result, but oh boy, would he be back for his moment in the sun...

One of the finest players the Republic of Ireland has ever produced, Arsenal legend Liam Brady never represented his country at a major tournament.

With a style not in keeping with Jack Charlton's agricultural modus operandi, the then-West Ham star was left at home for Italia 90 – a decision that brought an end to his playing career.

Speaking to The Irish Independent in 2020, Brady insisted he held no grudges, but still aimed a dig: "When we qualified in 1990, the team had moved on, I was surplus to requirements, Jack had lads in midfield who could get up and down the pitch, and maybe my style had had its time.

"If I had a different type of manager who believed in another type of football I could have been in that 1990 World Cup squad but he wasn't that way inclined.

"He wanted the ball to go from back to front as quickly as possible, put defences under pressure so they'd make a mistake, rather than trying creative football.

"So, that's why I didn't go."

This was more a case of self-admitted self-sabotage from the Euro 2020-winning Italy coach.

Roberto Mancini – who had a tempestuous association with the Azzurri in his playing days – refused to be a part of Arrigo Sachhi's squad for USA '94, believing the manager's preferred system did not get the best out of him. Italy would reach the final but suffered defeat to Brazil.

"I refused to follow Arrigo Sacchi in the United States. Another mistake paid for dearly. Today I can say I regret it, but of course it's too late," Mancini said in an interview with Corriere della Serra in 2009.

Having returned to Dick Advocaat's Netherlands squad following a 13-month absence due to disagreements with the coach, then-31-year-old Ruud Gullit sensationally withdrew from the camp on the eve of the tournament without citing a reason.

His departure was announced in an infamous press conference, with Gullit sat alongside Advocaat with his head bowed. Talk about drama.

Turns out that, like Mancini, the Ballon d'Or winner questioned his manager's methods and didn't believe Advocaat would play to his strengths.

An omission that resulted in the England legend trashing a hotel room, according to Ian Wright. Three Lions boss Glenn Hoddle made a big call, leaving the star of Euro 96 out of his plans for the 1998 World Cup due to concerns over his fitness after a number of photos emerged of Gazza eating late-night kebabs a week before the tournament got under way.

Although he head struggled at club level that season, Gascoigne had made a significant contribution to England's qualification. His exclusion signalled a sad and anticlimactic end to his international career.

Speaking on ITV4 in 2015, Hoddle said: "You could see he was never fit. It was the saddest thing I've ever had to do, leaving Paul Gascoigne out. And that was purely because he wasn't fit, and he wouldn't have been fit for the tournament."

Despite helping Italy to qualify for the showpiece event with a stunning goal at Wembley, Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola lost out as Italy manager Cesare Maldini opted to take 1994 penalty shootout fall guy Roberto Baggio to France instead after his impressive domestic season.

Following an impressive first full season with Arsenal aged just 19, Nicolas Anelka was included in France's provisional squad for the home World Cup, but manager Aime Jacquet omitted the forward from his final group in favour of Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet (probably fair enough, with hindsight), as well as Christophe Dugarry and Stephane Guivarc'h.

Jacquet said at the time: "My only concern was to pick the best possible team for France." He also admitted that he had decided which players would be involved in the home World Cup three months prior. France would, of course, go on to claim glory in Paris.

Robert Pires later revealed that Anelka saw the snub as a good opportunity to get his driving licence. Fair enough.

A manager leaving a player out for eating kebabs or their big ego is arguably fair enough. But because of your distaste for their haircut? That's borderline insane. Unfortunately, that was the fate that befell Real Madrid star Fernando Redondo in 1998.

Argentina head coach Daniel Passarella bizarrely attempted to enforce a ban on long hair and earrings during qualifying for the tournament, but Redondo was having none of it. Passarella even attempted to make an exception for a crucial qualifier against Colombia, but Redondo said no.

Speaking in 1998, Redondo said: "Perhaps in five or 10 years I will regret this, but certain things I won’t compromise. It looks like I will be watching the World Cup from my armchair.”

This would spell a criminally early end to his international career.

While this is widely regarded as a scandalous snub with hindsight, Romario hadn't actually recovered from a calf injury in time for the tournament and faced up to a month on the sidelines. He broke down in tears as the news was relayed in a press conference.

History dictates that it is rarely worth taking a gamble on an unfit player regardless of their importance to the team, but leaving out the hero of 1994 inevitably still caused a furore.

Brazil team doctor Lidio Toledo said at the time: "This type of injury can take 10 or 15 days or even a month to get better."

Manager Mario Zagallo was forced to justify himself, saying (as quoted by The Independent): "This was a special case because of his status and his importance to the team. We waited until the last possible moment. We gave him our full backing. We did the best we could.

"It wasn't us who dropped Romario. It was the scan."

Zagallo, who was dismissed after the tournament, caused further uproar back home by calling up defensive midfielder Emerson as the attacker's replacement.

In a rather inflammatory press conference that probably did little to appease his detractors, the coach said: "We have made the right decision. I was not going to pick another big-name player just to make people happy. I don't like making other people happy. I like to make myself happy.

"Romario has gone – but in 1962 we lost Pele and we still won."

What goes around, comes around. In 2002 it was Roberto Baggio's turn to suffer selection heartbreak – but with context this was hardly a surprise.

Baggio had made his full return from a four-month layoff after knee surgery just days before the squad announcement, and he had not played for Italy for three years at that point.

As a result, Giovanni Trappatoni opted to leave the Divine Ponytail at home, which appears understandable.

However, Baggio has since claimed that he should have been selected "even if he was in a wheelchair". "It would've been my fourth World Cup and I should have been there. It was right. It was sacrosanct,” he told Vanity Fair in 2010.

"Considering the career I'd had, I had that right. They should've taken me along and given me that chance, even if I was in a wheelchair."

Despite being ludicrously talented, iconic playmaker Riquelme was rarely in favour during Marcelo Bielsa's time in charge of the Argentina national team.

It was little surprise, then, that the coach opted to overlook him for his squad for Korea and Japan. The elegant enigma later revealed that he was struggling mentally at the time and wouldn't have been in a fit state to play anyway.

“I wasn’t right at the time. My head wasn’t right," he admitted..

Probably one of the most infamous and controversial snubs on this list. Despite some typically virtuosic displays for Arsenal, Robert Pires was left out of three consecutive France squads in the build-up to the World Cup by then-manager Raymond Domenech.

The pair had clashed the previous autumn, with Pires openly admitting that Domenech and "his attitudes, his words and his remarks annoyed him".

The winger was subsequently left out of Les Bleus' plans ahead of the tournament, with Pires resigned to staying at home by the time March rolled around.

"This is no surprise, to be honest," Pires told L'Equipe at the time. "What can I say? Obviously the national coach does not care about my performances. He has made his choice and I am clearly not part of it."

That wasn't the end of the story, though.

Sensational rumours swirled that Domenech based his team selections on astrology, and he had avoided Pires on account of him being a Scorpio.

The coach would finally address those claims in his book in 2016, insisting that Pires was overlooked for a perceived slide in form and because his attitude might prove divisive.

He wrote: "I studied all the techniques of communication, transactional analysis and so on. I also studied astrology and graphology. If I had said ‘I’m doing graphology’ no one would have picked up on it because it has a scientific side.

“But astrology has a mystical side and as soon as I mentioned it people started thinking I wear a wizard’s hat on my head and gaze into crystal balls. Astrology has a value in finding out about people’s character. Not in predicting the future or anything like that, but in working out people’s profile.

"I said to myself: ‘It’s true that you can’t manage different people in the same way so you have to try to figure out how best to proceed.’ So, that’s all I used it for. I never used it for selecting players for France. Never.”

Although he had already captured the imagination of football fans globally through grainy YouTube videos of his mazy dribbling and sublime goals in Brazil, Neymar had only just turned 18 when the 2010 World Cup rolled around, making his first-team breakthrough at Santos just five months before the tournament.

While he'd been in scintillating form, that's pretty much why Dunga opted not to take him to South Africa, deeming him too raw and favouring seasoned pros such as Grafite and Nilmar (neither of whom made any impact).

Speaking to Brazilian TV in 2014, Dunga said: "The story that we have often seen in Brazil is that players with only a handful of matches have never really lived up to expectations in the World Cup.

"In 1966, we had players who in 1970 were much better, but in 1966 they didn't have experience. And Brazil performed badly in 1966.

"We took our decision [in 2010] based on that and the team that we had built."

Omitting Neymar wasn't the only big call Dunga made. 2005 Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldinho was also left at home despite a very productive season at Milan and some serious pressure from the public.

In fairness, it was evident his albeit otherworldly powers were on the wane in the second half of 2009-10, and he had not featured for Selecao for more than a year.

Known for his pragmatism, Dunga preferred the combative, defensive approach of hot-headed midfielder Felipe Melo.

That would prove costly, with Melo scoring an own goal (that bizarrely wasn't credited to him) and receiving a red card for a stamp in an ill-fated quarter-final loss to Netherlands.

You would think that with a World Cup approaching and knowing that you are out of favour with the national team manager, a player would be doing their all to earn a call-up.

Not Antonio Cassano, though.

The volatile Italian had been overlooked by Marcelo Lippi for two years but had been touted for a recall amid a strong campaign with Sampdoria.

However, Cassano essentially scuppered his own chances of a seat on the plane to South Africa by refusing to postpone his June wedding.

The forward had never been popular with Lippi, but baulked at the suggestion that he might delay his big day should the call arrive.

"No way," he is quoted as saying by The Telegraph. "I've thought about the blue shirt since I was born but it's not my problem.

"I do it my way. Maybe prima donnas are not accepted by a group but I have always been one and will continue to be."

On the eve of their Champions League triumph in 2010, Inter stalwarts Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti were unexpectedly overlooked by Diego Maradona for his Argentina squad.

Cambiasso was yet to play for the coach at the time and Zanetti was 36, but this was still a decision that caused an uproar.

Maradona instead gave preference to a number of home-based players – a decision that would ultimately backfire as the Albiceleste were humbled by Germany in the quarters.

One of a number of France's perceived enfants terribles during the late noughties and early 2010s, Samir Nasri missed out on the 2010 squad despite being named the best French player in Europe the same year in recognition of his dazzling exploits in an Arsenal shirt.

Typically outspoken, Nasri was left seething by his omission and demanded answers from coach Domenech (yep, him again!).

The coach finally explained all in 2012, writing in his book: "I did not call up [Nasri] in 2010 because I had the same problems with him two years before. He always points at anything that can trouble the group – in that sense, he is no use in a squad."

In the end, Nasri was probably happy to miss out, as France mutinied off the pitch, capitulated on it and were sent packing early.

One of those omissions that is more shocking with hindsight, then-22-year-old Marcelo was named as one of seven back-up options but didn't make the tournament proper.

Dunga preferred former Lyon man Michel Bastos and one-time Tottenham defender Gilberto Melo as his left-back options.

In fairness, Marcelo was only just making his breakthrough at Real Madrid at the time. Dunga wasn't to know the glittering success he would go on to enjoy.

Heading towards the tournament off the back of a dazzling season with Man City, it was a huge surprise when Leroy Sane was left out of the Germany squad by Joachim Low. He'd scored 14 goals and laid on 19 more.

But those ridiculous stats weren't enough to persuade Low, who was choosing between Sane and Bayer Leverkusen's Julian Brandt. Justifying his decision at the time, Low said Sane "had not arrived in international matches yet".

Brandt would go to Russia instead, where he was afforded 19 minutes of action in total as Germany crashed out in the group stage at the hands of South Korea's Son Heung-min.

You can't help but think that Sane might have made more of an impact...

Having been omitted from France squad since being questioned by police over a sex tape blackmail scandal involving compatriot Mathieu Valbuena in 2015, Karim Benzema remained in international exile when the 2018 World Cup rolled around.

He lashed out at manager Didier Deschamps when he missed out on Euro 2016 on home soil, and spat blood at France Football Federation (FFF) president Noel Le Graet two years later as he was overlooked for the showpiece in Russia, after he suggested Les Bleus had moved on from Benzema.

The Real Madrid star tweeted: "Mr. Graet, with all due respect, you've lost an opportunity to remain silent.

"I've discovered your true face, and this isn't the one that said he appreciated me and wouldn't discuss the subject of team selections."

France would, of course, do pretty well without the striker, but he is now back in the fold as a Ballon d'Or winner in 2022 having patched things up with Deschamps.