Griezmann, Tchouaméni and De Paul set to star in the 2022 World Cup final
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The whole world will be watching on Sunday as Argentina face France at Lusail Stadium in Qatar in the 2022 World Cup final. Several stars of LaLiga Santander will be on display, as there are 10 Spain-based players in the Argentina squad and another six in the France squad. No other league even comes close to this total of 16 players, with the next best represented league being the Premier League with 10 players.
These players represent a total of six different LaLiga Santander clubs; Atlético de Madrid, FC Barcelona, Real Betis, Real Madrid, Sevilla FC and Villarreal CF will all have players hoping to win the biggest prize in international football this Sunday.
In the Argentina squad, many LaLiga Santander players have played a key role and they are: Gerónimo Rulli, Juan Foyth, Gonzalo Montiel, Germán Pezzella, Rodrigo De Paul, Marcos Acuña, Ángel Correa, Papu Gómez, Guido Rodríguez and Nahuel Molina. Meanwhile, the half dozen LaLiga Santander players in the France squad are: Jules Koundé, Antoine Griezmann, Aurélien Tchouaméni, Ousmane Dembélé, Eduardo Camavinga and Karim Benzema, with the Ballon d’Or holder still officially part of Didier Deschamps’ squad even though injury ruled him out of the tournament.
The LaLiga stars who have dazzled this World Cup: Griezmann, Tchouaméni, De Paul, Molina…
Several of the players mentioned above have been among the very best players of the entire tournament. Atlético de Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann is having a spectacular tournament in a deeper midfield role, and his smart play set up Les Bleus’ first goal in their semi-final win over Morocco. Griezmann also assisted both of France’s goals in their 2-1 quarter-final win over England, with one of those passes allowing Real Madrid midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni to fire in a spectacular strike from distance that is a candidate for goal of the tournament.
Ousmane Dembélé has been consistently impressive on France’s right wing too, while Jules Koundé has been solid in the French defence and Eduardo Camavinga even showed that he can play at left-back by helping cover for injuries during the group stage.
In the Argentina squad, two Atlético de Madrid players have stood out in particular. One is Rodrigo De Paul, who has played close to Lionel Messi all tournament and helped the captain of the Albiceleste to shine. Nahuel Molina has also had a great tournament at right-back and even scored the opening goal in the team’s quarter-final victory over the Netherlands. Sevilla FC left-back Marcos Acuña has also played regularly for Lionel Scaloni’s team, as did club teammate Papu Gómez before an unfortunate injury.
LaLiga also has the most players in the third-place playoff
A day before the World Cup final, Croatia and Morocco will square off in the third-place playoff after both those national teams also had very impressive tournaments. They’ve also done so with strong performances from LaLiga Santander players, with Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modrić captaining Croatia to the semi-finals for a second World Cup in a row and with Sevilla FC’s Bono and Youssef En-Nesyri proving decisive at both ends of the pitch for Morocco.
With three LaLiga players in the Croatia squad and four more in the Morocco list, there will be seven LaLiga representatives in the third-place playoff on Saturday and that is also the most of any other league, with the next closest being Serie A, Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and Hrvatska Nogometna Liga, all on six each.
The 2022 World Cup final will have 16 LaLiga stars involved and it will be the second World Cup final in a row in which no other league has more representatives than LaLiga Santander. In Russia in 2018, there were 10 LaLiga players in the showpiece event, with six of them winning the title with France and with four more featuring in that impressive 2018 Croatia squad. Lifting that golden trophy is what those French and Argentine players will be hoping to achieve when the ball gets rolling this Sunday.