National coach on Sporting star... Who missed out on a call-up to the squad | OneFootball

Roberto Martínez addressed the absence of Geovany Quenda from the national team call-up. The coach of the national team explained that he does not want to talk about the World Cup until qualification is confirmed, and therefore, he is not yet considering who will be left out of the World Cup - Rui Borges has already responded, in the meantime.

"We cannot talk about the World Cup because we still need to qualify. The focus is to have a group of players to reach the World Cup," Roberto Martínez began to explain, confessing that he does not want to discuss a possible call-up for the 2026 World Cup yet.

The national coach continued, mentioning some names that are in line to be called up to the team, including the star from Sporting: "Then we have many players with qualities in the pre-selected list like Rodrigo Mora, Mateus Fernandes, Quenda, João Simões, Félix Correia, Tomás Araújo. This is part of the competitiveness we have. But the focus now is to qualify. We will prohibit discussing and talking about the World Cup because we have to qualify first".

Later, Roberto Martínez was asked whether the group will be more restricted as the World Cup approaches: "It's a reflection. In football, we need to create a competitive environment and make changes when we need to. The team is competing very well. I think the qualification in September was exemplary, and now we need to create competitiveness to work on the future. We have players who are committed, at a great moment in their careers, and then we have others who are knocking on the door and working very well in the under-21s".

"Even without three or four important players, like in October, the team continues to compete. Every year, talented players emerge in Portuguese football who can add quality to the national team's locker room. But for that, you need to have a reason to make changes. Now it's important to work and continue to improve concepts. It's important to be at the best level in the game when there are only two or three training sessions to prepare for a match", concluded Roberto Martínez.

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