Jorge Sampaoli

Jorge Sampaoli made public the list of 23 players who will participate with the Argentina National Team in Russia 2018 next June. Immediately, the reactions appeared in the country and Alejandro Fantino, a media television host, criticized the decisions of the 'Hombrecito', being quickly shared.

The absences of Ricardo Centurion and Mauro Icardi were the main focus of Fantino's complaint.

"I try to do journalism, I analyze Centurion on the field. And if you told me that the National Team is a club and you are going to sign a contract for two years, I tell you, no way because you will have a mess. But 40 days, a World Cup, with how crazy it is, with the balls he has... If he didn't have what he has, he would be in Real Madrid", he explained.

"Centurion is pursued by bad luck, but he is a genius, he is a genius. Why doesn't he take him? Because he could end up taking Di Maria's place. Centurion can play on the right and on the left. Di Maria was not going to play with Centurion, because Centurion was going to play well and people were going to love him, they would start with 'Centurion, Centurion'. That explains my theory".

The criticism also went through the call-up of Mascherano and the non-inclusion of another forward.

"If Higuain catches a flu and you go out to play with Agüero as a 9 and without another forward on the bench. What other forward is there? Dybala, who said he is a forward", he questioned.

Without leaving the critical point of view, Fantino dared to give explanations but in Sampaoli's voice, imitating him as the coach referred in the press conference.

"We felt that we needed to free up the transition zone of the field since in the 4-3-3-3-24-12 by Pi squared by two with which we are going to play, there are determinations that have to do with the decibel levels of the speaker of La Renga in 'Detonator of hearts', that's why we decided to bet on the first man who stepped on the moon, which was Armstrong, that's why Ricardo will not be in the World Cup", he joked.