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 defeat to Estudiantes in the Copa Argentina. He will be part of the squad for the friendlies leading up to 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 arrive as well: 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 traveled straight to the United States.

With just 29 matches in the top flight, 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 was included on a reserve list), he will be with the squad for the matches before the tournament and will be able to spend time alongside several world champions and show himself to the coaching staff.

The player from Entre Ríos joins six other footballers who are already in Kansas and 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. They are five youth players and two right-backs, who could indeed 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 training camp will be complete, and nearly a week will pass before Argentina faces Honduras on Saturday the 6th. Three days later, Iceland will be the final opponent before the World Cup debut against Algeria. The seven players called up outside the official squad list will help fill out the roster, although Giay and Capaldo could even start given the lack of a 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.