Controversial winner and team-mate duels, the World Cup history of Leeds United’s four participants | OneFootball

Leeds United will take four players to this summer’s World Cup, three with previous tournament minutes and one preparing for his first finals.

This will be Noah Okafor’s second World Cup after three substitute outings for Switzerland in 2022. He missed the 1-0 group defeat to Brazil with a muscle injury, his longest stint was 24 minutes in the 6-1 last-16 loss to Portugal, totalling 43.

Ao Tanaka is the only member of the quartet to have scored at a World Cup. His winner in Japan’s 2-1 defeat of Spain in 2022 followed Kaoru Mitoma’s contentious pull-back, he also started the 2-1 opener against Germany and came on in extra time before the shootout loss to Croatia.

Brenden Aaronson, capped 57 times by the USMNT, featured in all four matches in 2022 without starting. He played 24 minutes against Wales, 13 against England, the second half of the 1-0 win over Iran, then 23 in the 3-1 last-16 loss to the Netherlands. He married during last week’s preparations.

Gabriel Gudmundsson is set for his first World Cup and is likely to start every game for Graham Potter. “I think that's the biggest achievement as a football player, to play and represent your country at the World Cup. It does not get any bigger than that and hopefully we can do great.” He was speaking to Leeds Live last month.

Source: Leeds Live