For a whole month from 09 June to 09 July 2006 fans everywhere can sit back and watch great players from around the world strutting their stuff on the greatest footballing stage on earth - The World Cup finals.
Just as the Olympic Games is the ultimate sporting contest for most athletes, the World Cup is the very pinnacle of a football player's career. So as you sit in the stadiums of Germany (if you're very lucky) or in front of a television (if you're like the rest of us) and watch all the action, spare a thought for some of the players who will not be there.
A number of star players will miss this tournament, and other World Cup finals competitions during their careers, because they happen to have been born in one of the minnows of the footballing world. These countries are either too small to qualify or lack a history and tradition of football. Countries such as Finland and Georgia have never made it to the finals and, quite possibly, never will.
Other players will be missing because, despite having a rich tradition in international football, their squads were not good enough to qualify this time. The biggest surprise was Uruguay, who not only have an impressive array of star players, but have won two World Cups in the past. Other surprises include Turkey, Greece, Cameroon and Nigeria.
We have chosen eleven of these players to form our team of Missing Men.
Click here to see a graphic of our team of Missing Men.
Finnish and Bolton goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen has played in England since 1997. Apart from time out with a bad knee injury in 2000/01, he has been Bolton’s number one keeper since then. One of the finest moments of the 2001/02 season was Jaaskelainen’s miraculous save from Andy Cole’s point blank shot, and the following season he was voted the best goalkeeper in the Premier League. In 2004 he finally saw some silverware, being an important part of the Bolton side that won the League Cup.
The fact that Greece did not quality for this year’s tournament is surprising because they are the reigning European champions. One of the main reasons that they won the Euro 2004 tournament in Portugal was their excellent defence. Giorgios Seitaridis was elected the best right-back at the tournament, and is now considered as one of the best men in his position in the world. While very strong defensively, he is also good going forward with the ball at his feet. He moved from Panathinaikos FC to European champions FC Porto at the end of the 2003/2004 season, and later moved on to Dynamo Moscow.
Finland and Liverpool's Sami Hyppia cost only £3.5 million when brought to Anfield in 1999. Since then he has forged a rock-solid defensive partnership firstly with Stephane Henchoz, and more recently with Jamie Carragher. Winning last season’s Champions League final was definitely the high point in his career. His strength in the air and poise in a crisis have seen him nominated for the PFA Player of the year trophy.
Another key man in Greece's iron defence at Euro 2004 was Traianos Dellas, whose superb man-marking was one of the keys to their success, and earned him a place in the All-Star team to go with his winner's medal. Dellas played in the team that lost the UEFA European Under-21 Championship final 1998. He has played in England and Italy, but is currently back in Greece with AEK Athens.
Two time Georgian player of the year, AC Milan’s left-back Kakha Kaladze became that nation’s most expensive ever signing when he moved from Dynamo Kiev to the Italian giants in 2001. In the 2002/03 season he won both the Champions League and the Italian club, which prompted the Georgian postal service to issue a special stamp in his honour.
Alvaro Recoba was once hailed as the successor of Enzo Francescoli, and while that might be an exaggeration, his performances for the Uruguay’s national team and, above all, for Inter Milan have shown what a hugely talented player he is. He moved to Italy in 1997 after helping CF Nacional win the Uruguyan title. At the end of the 2001/02 season, which saw Inter lose the title to Juventus on the last day, Recoba voluntarily opted for a pay-cut because of the club’s financial problems.
Ahmed Hasan was recently voted the best player at the African Cup of Nations as his 4 goals helped Egypt win the trophy on their home turf. He possesses great skills and is very creative when setting up his team mates. He currently plays for Besiktas in the Turkish league.
Belozoglu Emre started his career at Galatasaray before moving to Inter Milan in 2001, where he played 79 games. He is a left footed player who is excellent on the ball and has a fine pass. He has played 38 times for Turkey and was one of the stars of the team that finished third at the 2002 World Cup. In 1999/2000 he won both the UEFA Cup and the European Super Cup. He recently moved to Newcastle United.
Damien Duff is considered as not only one of the most exciting players in the Republic of Ireland team, but also in the English Premier League. His blistering pace and clever ball control reached the eyes of the world during the World Cup in 2002, and in the same year he moved to Chelsea for £17 million. He won the League Cup with Blackburn Rovers and then that trophy again, as well as the Premiership, with Chelsea in 2004/05.
Obafemi Martins was only 18 years old when he made his debut for Inter Milan in 2001. His incredible speed and goal-sense have seen him develop into one of the most exciting players in the Serie A. He scored a goal on his international debut for Nigeria in 2004 and the way he celebrates scoring with a series of spectacular somersaults has been thrilling fans ever since.
Samuel Eto'o was always a precocious talent, and he became the youngest player to appear in a World Cup finals competition in France in 1998. After showing his worth in the Spanish league at Mallorca he completed a move to Barcelona. Since then he has gone from strength to strength to become undoubtedly one of the best strikers in the world. African player of the year in 2004, 2005 and 2006, he has won the African Cup of Nations twice and also an Olympic gold medal with the Cameroon team.
If you would like to practise your English, try the following activity:
Matching the names of players to facts about them (medium)
Who do you think we should have included in our team of Missing Men? Do you think that any of them are playing out of position? Send us your choices and opinions.
BuiDuyQuang writes “Diego Forlan arrived at Manchester United in 2003. But he always a reserve player. He scored a total of 4 goals in his first soccer season. But his life/work became much better when he arrived at Villareal in 2005 and he became a famous player. He scored lots more goals than when he was at Manchester United. Now he always appears in Villareal’s first team.”
If you enjoyed this article, have a look at our article called "They Never Made It", about three great players who never played in a World Cup.
Also, keep an eye out for our follow up article (published after all the final squads have been announced) about men who will be missing from the World Cup either through injury or because they didn't get in their country's squad.
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