From Pulisic to Buffon, the best XI who failed to qualify for Russia 2018

Here’s a look at 11 players who you won’t see at next year’s World Cup in Russia.

There are a lot of great players absent from this summer’s World Cup. After soccer powers like Italy, the Netherlands and Chile failed to qualify for Russia, it left the tournament without some of the planet’s best players.

While fans will delight in seeing countries such as Iceland and Panama play at the World Cup for the first time, many will lament the absence of such traditional powers. Add to that the failed qualification of Cameroon, the reigning African champions, Ireland and the United States, and the list of nations not at the World Cup could easily be used to fill an NIT-style tournament.

The World Cup will be poorer for the absences of such high-caliber players. How to quantify such absences? Here’s an all-star starting XI (deployed in a 4-3-3) made up of stars who didn’t get a seat on the plane to Russia.

Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)

The legendary ‘keeper was reduced to tears Tuesday after Italy’s 1-0 aggregate loss to Sweden, a defeat the keeps the Azzurri out of the World Cup for the first time since 1958. While the four-time World Cup champions have been a staple at major tournaments over the decades, the team had been in decline over the past decade. Failing to get out of the first round at both the 2010 and 2014 tournaments were telling signs that Italy may no longer be a world soccer power.

All the while, the 39-year-old Buffon was aiming to play at his fifth World Cup, his sixth if you take into account France ’98, when he was part of the team as an unused sub. Buffon is the most-capped player in Italy’s history with 175 over a span of nearly 20 years and is the fourth most-capped player of all time. The Juventus goalkeeper also served as Italy’s captain after the retirement of Fabio Cannavaro and has the most appearances, with 79, of any player to ever don the armband for the Azzurri. He helped lead the team to the 2006 World Cup title.

Buffon retired from the national team following this week’s debacle. As for the failed qualification to Russia 2018, Buffon said after the match: “Blame is shared equally between everyone. There can’t be scapegoats.”