{"id":501942,"date":"2026-05-25T15:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T15:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/501942\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T15:13:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T15:13:11","slug":"spain-recall-arsenal-star-as-real-madrid-duo-left-out-%c2%b7-the-42","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/501942\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain recall Arsenal star as Real Madrid duo left out \u00b7 The 42"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAMINE YAMAL LEADS Spain\u2019s squad for the 2026 World Cup, named by coach Luis de la Fuente on Monday, which also included Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino after his recent return from injury.<\/p>\n

For the first time at a World Cup, the Spain squad will not feature a Real Madrid player, with Dean Huijsen dropped and veteran Dani Carvajal also excluded after struggling through an injury-hit campaign.<\/p>\n

Merino, a favourite of coach De la Fuente, appeared as a substitute for the Gunners against Crystal Palace on Sunday in their final Premier League match, for his first appearance since January after a foot fracture.<\/p>\n

De La Fuente also called up defenders Eric Garcia and Marc Pubill after impressive seasons with Barcelona and Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, respectively, deciding to leave out Huijsen and Atl\u00e9tico\u2019s Robin Le Normand.<\/p>\n

Along with teenager Bar\u00e7a star Yamal, Athletic Bilbao\u2019s Nico Williams played a key role as Spain won Euro 2024 \u2013 he is in the squad despite a season badly disrupted by fitness issues.<\/p>\n

Yamal, 18, is a doubt for the first matches of the tournament after suffering a hamstring injury with Bar\u00e7a, which has kept him out since late April.\n<\/p>\n

Squad:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Goalkeepers:<\/strong> Unai Simon (Athletic Bilbao), David Raya (Arsenal\/ENG), Joan Garcia (Barcelona)<\/p>\n

Defenders:<\/strong> Marcos Llorente, Marc Pubill (Atl\u00e9tico Madrid), Pedro Porro (Tottenham\/ENG), Aymeric Laporte (Athletic Bilbao), Eric Garcia, Pau Cubarsi (Barcelona), Marc Cucurella (Chelsea\/ENG), Alejandro Grimaldo (Bayer Leverkusen\/GER)<\/p>\n

Midfielders:<\/strong> Rodri (Manchester City\/ENG), Martin Zubimendi, Mikel Merino (Arsenal\/ENG), Pedri, Gavi (Barcelona), Fabian Ruiz (Paris Saint-Germain\/FRA), Alex Baena (Atl\u00e9tico Madrid)<\/p>\n

Forwards:<\/strong> Yeremy Pino (Crystal Palace\/ENG), Victor Munoz (Osasuna), Mikel Oyarzabal (Real Sociedad), Ferran Torres, Lamine Yamal, Dani Olmo (Barcelona), Nico Williams (Athletic Bilbao), Borja Iglesias (Celta Vigo)<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u00a9 AFP 2026<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAMINE YAMAL LEADS Spain\u2019s squad for the 2026 World Cup, named by coach Luis de la Fuente on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501943,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[76],"tags":[2725,18,19,17,187794,156140,4335,383,132,178784],"class_list":["post-501942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arsenal","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mikel-merino","tag-ready-to-go","tag-soccer","tag-spain","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116635871424043794","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501942\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501943"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}