Mexico national team manager Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino has been promising that there will not be many surprises in the list of players he names to the final roster for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The intrigue with El Tri will come in the form of injuries, especially among the forwards. Scoring issues have plagued Mexico over the last year, with the best Mexican attackers struggling for fitness and form in recent months, and it’s unclear whether some of them will be able to recover in time.
Mexico announced their preliminary roster for the World Cup on October 26 ahead of a November 9 friendly against Iraq in Spain. That match will help Martino decide the 26 players to take to Qatar.
El Tri will set up camp in Girona, Spain before departing for Qatar. They will play matches against Iraq on November 9 and Sweden on November 16, before kicking off Group C play against Poland on Tuesday, November 22.
Here is a projected preliminary list and final World Cup squad for Mexico, based on Martino’s call-ups and lineup decisions over recent months.
Mexico World Cup squad 2022
Manager Tata Martino had until Friday, October 21 to submit to FIFA an official preliminary list of 35-55 players, from which he will select his final 26-man roster for Qatar by Monday, November 14.
The preliminary list was officially unveiled on October 26 by the Mexican federation. Below is the list of players.
Those that didn’t make the preliminary list include Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez who has been frozen out of the national team since 2019 by Martino. Chicharito’s exclusion is unsurprising given Martino’s continued stance on the player, but it remains controversial given the player’s good form for the LA Galaxy and Mexico’s attacking woes.
Also not included was Chicharito’s LA Galaxy teammate Julian Araujo, Monterrey playmaker Rodolfo Pizarro, and Chivas midfielder Fernando Beltran. Pizarro is a well-known figure, but he has not been involved heavily with the national team since 2020, while Beltran has been a fringe player over the past six months.
Source: FIFA.com
