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The football world has a long list of players who deserved to win a World Cup, or at least participate in one of these competitions.
The latest name added in this list is Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who will not feature in Brazil in 2014. The Swedish striker, who has remained in the elite over the past decade, said that a World Cup without him is not worth to be seen.
Far from being just a manifestation of a huge ego, this is further proof of how unpredictable football is.
While Ibrahimovic has already played two World Cups (in 2002 and 2006 Sweden was eliminated in the second round), players like Ryan Giggs or George Weah have not been able to play in a competition of this stature.
Both had the misfortune to be born in countries whose national teams have never achieved great sporting results. They are the clearest examples of great players who have shone in the big leagues in Europe, but have not had the opportunity to contest a World Cup.
Of the two, the Welsh player from Manchester United was probably closest.
Even in large national teams, some champions of the world, there are cases of great players who could not play even a minute in a World Cup match.
From Argentina, we can quickly mention Ramon Diaz and Carlos Bianchi, both very great scorers.
Diaz get kicked out of Italy in 1990 due to personal differences he had with Diego Maradona, while Carlos Bianchi, with a long career in French football, missed out on the 1986 World Cup in Mexico due to a serious injury.
The case of Germany’s Bernd Schuster is even sadder.
The talented midfielder from Barcelona and Real Madrid missed the opportunity to play in a World Cup due to differences that he held with the German Football Association, which led him to give up playing for his national team.
Eric Cantona missed the opportunity to play USA 94 because their national team failed to qualify for the competition.
Cantona’s bad luck was that, due to the frustration of not getting great results in his national team, the Frenchman withdrew from it in 1997.
But perhaps the most striking case of this list of great players who could not play a single game of the World Cup has been Alfredo Di Stefano.
The star of Real Madrid during the 50s and 60s defended the colors of three national teams during his career and in no case was able to play a game at the highest level of world football.
In 1950 Argentina did not attend the tournament for political reasons. Shortly after Di Stefano opted for the Colombian national team, but the team failed to reach the World Cup in 1954.
And when finally the Real Madrid striker had a chance to play the competition for the Spanish national team in 1962, an untimely injury sidelined him.
Remembering those big names who did not have the chance to play even a game in the most important football competition of the world forces us to value and respect those who have reached such a high honour.
Maybe some of them are unknown, others have not even been good players, but the reality is that they have fulfilled the dream of many of us and so deserve our respect.
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