No surprise -- no Icardi in Argentina's 23-player World Cup squad

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, May 21, 2018

As expected, Argentina national team coach Jorge Sampaoli picked Juventus forward Paulo Dybala to go to the World Cup while he didn't include Mauro Icardi, the Serie A top scorer with 29 goals for Inter Milan.

Dybala joins Lionel Messi, Juventus teammate Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Aguero in the Argentina frontline corps, which shapes up to be one of the best in Russia.

The decision to overlook Icardi came as no surprise. Sampaoli had previously the inconsistency between Icardi's club and country form. There had also been reports of problems between Messi, Argentina's star, and Icardi.

Argentina (23 players):
GOALKEEPERS: Franco Armani (River Plate), Willy Caballero (Chelsea/ENG), Sergio Romero (Manchester United/ENG).
DEFENDERS: Marcos Acuna (Sporting Lisbon/POR), Cristian Ansaldi (Torino/ITA), Federico Fazio (Roma/ITA), Gabriel Mercado (Sevilla/ESP), Nicolas Otamendi (Man. City/ENG), Marcos Rojo (Man. United/ENG), Nicolas Tagliafico (Ajax/NED).
MIDFIELDERS: Ever Banega (Sevilla/ESP), Lucas Biglia (AC Milan/ITA), Angel Di Maria (Paris SG/FRA), Giovani Lo Celso (Paris SG/FRA), Manuel Lanzini (West Ham United/ENG), Javier Mascherano (Hebei China Fortune/CHN), Maximiliano Meza (Independiente), Cristian Pavon (Boca Juniors), Eduardo Salvio (Benfica/POR).
FORWARDS: Sergio Aguero (Man. City/ENG), Paulo Dybala (Juventus/ITA), Lionel Messi (Barcelona/ESP), Gonzalo Higuain (Juventus/ITA).