Mauro Icardi scores goals. The Argentinian striker, who turned 25 in February, is a goalscoring machine. He’s twice been top scorer in Serie A, including this season in which his 29 goals in 34 games—and his record for having the best conversion rate in Europe’s top five leagues, according to WhoScored.com—helped fire his club Inter Milan into next season’s UEFA Champions League for the first time since 2012.
At his current rate of scoring—and if Inter Milan can fend off advances from Chelsea for his signature, as reported by Cadena Ser and —Icardi is going to surpass compatriots Gabriel Batistuta and Hernan Crespo as the leading Argentinian scorer in the history of Serie A. So why isn’t he part of Argentina’s 23-man squad for the FIFA World Cup finals in Russia?
“It’s a big sadness that the great goalscorer of Italian football will not be in the World Cup,” Matias Bustos Milla, a journalist with Argentinian newspaper Clarin, told B/R. “The case of Icardi is curious. For several years, Argentinian football fans have been asking about the big jewel: Why was he not been selected in the national team? There have been various trainers who didn’t invite him onto their squads—Alejandro Sabella, Tata Martino, Edgardo Bauza.”
This time it has been the turn of Jorge Sampaoli, who initially included Icardi in his preliminary 35-man squad for the tournament, to discard him. Sampaoli’s squad is top heavy with centre-forwards; Manchester City’s Kun Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain from Juventus have been chosen ahead of Icardi. The Inter Icardi has also missed chances to shine.
Sampaoli called up Icardi for crucial FIFA World Cup qualifying games last year. In three matches, including two starts against Venezuela and Uruguay, Icardi failed to score. “Higuain is criticised in Argentina for his scoring record so when Icardi arrived—playing in his position—he got his opportunity,” says Pablo Lisotto, a journalist with Argentinian newspaper La Nacion, “but Icardi, in the few chances he got, he couldn’t score goals either.”