Ignacio Ovando left Kempes early to join the Argentina squad | OneFootball

The young Rosario Central center-back traveled to the United States immediately after his team’s loss to Estudiantes in the Copa Argentina. He will be part of the squad for the friendlies ahead of the World Cup.

While the 26 players on Argentina’s squad list arrive at the training camp in Kansas City, in the coming hours the seventh Argentine footballer who will take part in the World Cup warm-up friendlies against Honduras and Iceland will also arrive: Ignacio Ovando.

Although his call-up for the days leading up to the World Cup had already been announced, it had been put on hold pending this afternoon’s match between Rosario Central and Estudiantes. After the heavy defeat suffered by Canalla, in which he played the full 90 minutes, the 18-year-old got on a plane and flew straight to the United States.

With just 29 appearances in the First Division, Ovando has already caught Lionel Scaloni’s attention. And although he is not the first option to make the World Cup squad if any center-back gets injured (Marcos Senesi remained on a reserve list), he will be with the squad for the matches leading up to the tournament and will be able to spend time with several world champions and show himself to the coaching staff.

The player from Entre Ríos joins six other footballers already in Kansas who will be part of the delegation over the next few weeks. They are: Santiago Beltrán, Agustín Giay, Nicolás Capaldo, Tomás Aranda, Joaquín Freitas and Simón Escobar. These are five youngsters and two right-backs, and those two could earn a place in the World Cup squad if Nahuel Molina and Gonzalo Montiel do not recover in time and properly.

In the early hours of Monday, the squad at the Kansas City camp will be completed, and nearly a week will pass until Argentina face Honduras on Saturday the 6th. Three days later, Iceland will be the last opponent before the World Cup debut against Algeria. The seven call-ups outside the main list will help round out the squad, although Giay and Capaldo could even start given the lack of a natural right-back on the list. In any case, if something happens, Scaloni can call up any of the other 55 players from the preliminary list.

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