Santiago Beltrán and Tomás Aranda in Argentina squad: 4 surprises | OneFootball

Scaloni will name a squad of more than 26 players and will take River and Boca footballers to be part of the training sessions.

While waiting for Lionel Scaloni to announce the list of the 26 players called up for the 2026 World Cup, the Argentina National Team is preparing for the two friendlies before the start of the tournament, which will be against the Honduras National Team and the Iceland National Team, to be played in the United States.

With those matches in mind, the coach from Pujato intends to take more players than the squad list allows in order to have sparring partners for training. For this, he will call up names from Argentine football who have not had experience with the senior team.

Among the names that appear, according to what Bolavip was able to learn, are two River players: Santiago Beltrán, who is fighting for a place on the final list, and Joaquín Freitas, while on the Boca side there is young player Tomás Aranda, who is on the 55-man preliminary list.

Freitas’ case is the most unusual because he was not part of the preliminary list that Scaloni submitted to the AFA. Throughout his development in the youth divisions, he was only part of Argentina’s Ascenso National Team during his time at Acassuso.

On the other hand, Nicolás Capaldo will also be present. The former Xeneize player, who now plays for Hamburg in Germany and has not made his senior debut, will be in training sessions and practices in an attempt to break into the final squad and compete for a spot at right-back.

Throughout last season, Capaldo turned into a defender, having started his career as a midfielder. With Hamburg, where he also wore the captain’s armband, he played during the 2025/26 season both as a center-back and as a right-back.

With that in mind, ahead of these friendly matches Scaloni will call up more than 26 players and then make the final cut for the World Cup. In them, he will test new options to clear up the last doubts in shaping the squad for the world tournament.

Ovando and Escobar, Scaloni’s other surprises

Ignacio Ovando, an 18-year-old center-back who is a starter for Rosario Central, is another of Scaloni’s surprises for these friendlies, as after coming through the national team’s youth ranks he will have his first experience with the senior team.

A similar situation will apply to Simón Escobar. The Vélez left-back, who was captain of Argentina’s Under-17 National Team, will join the senior team’s training sessions for the first time in his career. In November of this year he will play in the World Cup with his age group.

Argentina National Team’s upcoming friendlies

As preparation for the World Cup, the Argentina National Team will play two friendly matches. The first will be against Honduras on Saturday, June 6 at Kyle Field in Texas, and then against Iceland on Tuesday, June 9 at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Alabama.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.