Great honour! HSV star named in Argentina’s World Cup squad | OneFootball

Nicolas Capaldo has had a strong first season in an HSV shirt. He has now been rewarded for it by a prominent source.

Quite surprisingly, Capaldo has made it into Argentina’s preliminary squad for the upcoming World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico. Head coach Lionel Scaloni announced his 55-man squad on Monday, which must be reduced to a maximum of 26 players by June 1.

To actually make it into the final World Cup squad of the defending champions, Capaldo will have to beat out a large number of players. The HSV star, who has so far made only nine U23 appearances for his home country, has been nominated as a defender. In that position, he is competing for a spot with top stars such as Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur), Nicolas Otamendi (SL Benfica) and Lisandro Martinez (Manchester United), among others.

Photo: Getty Images

HSV star Capaldo is fighting for a World Cup ticket!

Even so, being called up to the preliminary squad is already a major success for Capaldo. The versatile defensive specialist joined HSV from RB Salzburg last summer for a comparatively modest €2.1 million and quickly developed into a key player at the Volkspark. He featured in 25 of 33 matches. Only an abdominal muscle injury prevented him from making even more appearances.

Nur die Raute – by HSV fans for HSV fans

Capaldo was originally planned for central midfield and was supposed to replace promotion hero Ludovit Reis, who moved to Club Brugge. But after just a few weeks of the season, he dropped into central defense and quickly became indispensable as the right-sided player in Hamburg’s back three. In the absence of the often-injured Yussuf Poulsen, the new signing even regularly led HSV onto the pitch as captain.

This impressive development clearly did not go unnoticed by World Cup-winning coach Scaloni either. The 47-year-old has now included the Hamburg player among Argentina’s 55 best players. Whether Capaldo will actually travel to the World Cup alongside superstar Lionel Messi will only be decided in a few weeks. Admittedly, his chances are probably rather slim. Still, being nominated for the squad of one of the title favorites is a great honor in itself. For Capaldo and for HSV.

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