Lionel Messi stands out in the list of 44 reserved by Argentina for confrontation with Ecuador, seven of them are youth players who play in Europe

The return to the Argentina team of captain Lionel Messi and the summons of seven youths who play in Europe are the novelties of the list of 44 footballers reserved on Sunday by the technical director Lionel Scaloni for the closing of the South American qualifier to the World Cup in Qatar 2022.

After the absence of the Albiceleste benchmark in the last two days after his recovery from COVID-19, Messi returns to be at Scaloni’s disposal for the matches that Argentina will play on March 25 against Venezuela in Buenos Aires and four days later against Ecuador in Guayaquil.

In addition to the return of Messi, Scaloni surprised the call with seven youths who play in Europe: Franco Carboni (18 years from Inter), Valentín Carboni (17, from Inter), Alejandro Garnacho (17, from Manchester United), Nicolás Paz (17, from Real Madrid), Tiago Geralnik (18, from Villarreal), Luka Romero (17, from Lazio) and Matías Soulé (18, from Juventus).

The Ecuadorian national team requests a capacity of 75% for the qualifying game against Argentina

With Argentina already qualified for Qatar, the coaching staff will use these two commitments to carry out evaluations in order to define the list for the World Cup.

The list of 44 reserved by Lionel Scaloni is as follows:

Goalkeepers (5): Franco Armani (River Plate), Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa-ENG), Gerónimo Rulli (Villarreal-ESP), Juan Musso (Atalanta-ITA) and Esteban Andrada (Rayados-MEX).

. Defenders (12): Gonzalo Montiel (Sevilla-ESP), Nahuel Molina (Udinese-ITA), Cristian Romero (Tottenham-GBR), Nicolás Otamendi (Benfica-POR), Juan Foyth (Villarreal-ESP), Lucas Martínez Quarta (Fiorentina -ITA), Germán Pezzella (Betis-ESP), Lisandro Martínez (Ajax-NED), Nehúen Pérez (Udinese-ITA), Nicolás Tagliafico (Ajax-NED), Marcos Acuña (Sevilla-ESP) and Franco Carboni (Inter-ITA ).

Midfielders (13): Rodrigo De Paul (Atlético Madrid-ESP), Leandro Paredes (PSG-FRA), Giovani Lo Celso (Villarreal-ESP), Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen-GER), Manuel Lanzini (West Ham-ENG), Guido Rodríguez (Betis-ESP), Roberto Pereyra (Udinese-ITA), Emiliano Buendía (Aston Villa-ENG), Alejandro Gómez (Sevilla-ESP), Alexis Mac Allister (Brighton-ENG), Nicolás Paz (Real Madrid-ESP) , Tiago Geralnik (Villarreal-ESP) and Valentín Carboni (Inter-ITA).

Forwards (14): Lionel Messi (PSG-FRA), Lautaro Martínez (Inter-ITA), Lucas Ocampos (Sevilla-ESP), Nicolás González (Fiorentina-ITA), Ángel Correa (Atlético Madrid-ESP), Paulo Dybala (Juventus -ITA), Ángel Di María (PSG-FRA), Julián Álvarez (River Plate), Joaquín Correa (Inter-ITA), Giovanni Simeone (Hellas Verona-ITA), Lucas Boyé (Elche-ESP), Matías Soulé (Juventus- ITA), Alejandro Garnacho (Manchester United-ENG) and Luka Romero (Lazio-ITA).

(D)