{"id":29252,"date":"2026-05-25T11:37:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:37:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/29252\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:37:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:37:10","slug":"3-of-arsenals-5-spaniards-called-up-for-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/29252\/","title":{"rendered":"3 of Arsenal’s 5 Spaniards called up for World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three of Arsenal\u2019s five Spanish internationals have been called up for the World Cup, including recent injury returner Mikel Merino.\"MURCIA,Photo by Mateo Villalba Sanchez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Spain have announced their call-ups for the 2026 World Cup, and Arsenal trio David Raya<\/a>, Martin Zubimendi<\/a>, and Mikel Merino<\/a> will all be pleased to learn they\u2019ve made the cut.<\/p>\n

Merino will be particularly happy to be involved, given his lengthy injury absence this season. The midfielder only returned to the pitch yesterday against Crystal Palace, but Spain have shown faith in him to be ready for their summer tournament.<\/p>\n

Raya and Zubimendi were more obvious inclusions, as both are Spain regulars and have been fit and available for Arsenal throughout this title-winning season.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Monday\u2019s squad wasn\u2019t all good news for Arsenal players, as Kepa Arrizabalaga<\/a> and Cristhian Mosquera<\/a> didn\u2019t make the final squad list.<\/p>\n

\"DARMSTADT,Photo by Alex Grimm\/Getty Images for DFB<\/p>\n

Kepa was once Spain\u2019s starting goalkeeper, making the lineup for almost every competitive match during the European Championship qualifiers in 2019. He was also in the squad throughout 2023, but has since dropped out of contention for call-ups.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not easy to be a Spanish goalkeeper right now, with Raya, Unai Simon<\/a>, and Joan Garcia<\/a> all very difficult to displace. At least one of those three keepers would surely make every international squad in world football, if they were eligible.<\/p>\n

Mosquera had the more realistic hope for a call-up, having been in the Spain squad in March. But that was the defender\u2019s debut appearance for his country, so it\u2019s not completely surprising he\u2019s been left out for the World Cup.<\/p>\n

Arsenal have now had X players called up for the World Cup, with two more still waiting on potential call-ups.<\/p>\n

Arsenal World Cup call-ups\"TBILISI,Photo by Levan Verdzeuli\/Getty ImagesWorld Cup squad announcement schedule\"AMSTERDAM,Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos\/Getty ImagesMay 27th \u2013 NetherlandsJune 1st \u2013 Ecuador <\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three of Arsenal\u2019s five Spanish internationals have been called up for the World Cup, including recent injury returner…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7599,7413,6522,14696,2920,368,17],"class_list":["post-29252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-cristhian-mosquera","tag-david-raya","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-kepa-arrizabalaga","tag-martin-zubimendi","tag-mikel-merino","tag-spain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}