Tomas Palacios and Gabriel Rojas have won their first Argentina call-ups for the friendly against Guatemala, while Valentin Barco, Jose Lopez, Maximo Perrone and Gianluca Prestianni have retained their places.
Lionel Scaloni’s final selection before he submits his list for the FIFA World Cup 2026™ is headlined by Emiliano Martinez, Cristian Romero, Rodrigo De Paul, Alexis Mac Allister, Enzo Fernandez, Julian Alvarez and Lionel Messi, but there was no place for struggling Real Madrid 18-year-old Franco Mastantuono or on-song Strasbourg striker Joaquin Panichelli.
Lisandro Martunez and Lautaro Martinez missed out due to injury, while Valentin Carboni has been ruled out of the global finals due to a ruptured ACL.
Argentina squad
Emiliano Martinez
Juan Musso
Geronimo Rulli
Marcos Acuna
Leonardo Balerdi
Nahuel Molina
Gonzalo Montiel
Nicolas Otamendi
Tomas Palacios
Gabriel Rojas
Cristian Romero
Marcos Senesi
Nicolas Tagliafico
Rodrigo De Paul
Enzo Fernandez
Alexis Mac Allister
Maximo Perrone
Exequiel Palacios
Leandro Paredes
Nico Paz
Maximo Perrone
Gianluca Prestianni
Thiago Almada
Julian Alvarez
Nico Gonzalez
Jose Lopez
Lionel Messi
Giuliano Simeone
Newcomers
Palacios, a towering centre-back owned by Inter Milan, has been impressing on loan at Estudiantes, who sit second in the Argentinian Apertura having conceded only five goals in 10 games. The 22-year-old scored in a 2-1 win over Ginmasia Mendoza last night. Palacios will compete with Leonardo Balerdi, Nicolas Otamendi, Romero and Marcos Senesi for game time.
Rojas gets his first chance at the age of 28. The Racing Club player will challenge Qatar 2022 winners Marcos Acuna and Nicolas Tagliafico for the left-back berth.
Chocolate Box warm-up
The Albiceleste will take on Guatemala at La Bombonera in Buenos Aires on Tuesday, 31 March. Argentina will play Algeria at Kansas City Stadium in their World Cup opener, before switching to Dallas Stadium to face Austria and Jordan.
World Cup success
Argentina, who finished runners-up at the maiden edition, finally won the World Cup in 1978. Daniel Passarella and Mario Kempes inspired that triumph, which was clinched by a 3-1 extra-time win over the Netherlands at the Estadio Monumental.
Diego Maradona was exceptional as Argentina seized a second star at Mexico 1986, while 10 goal contributions from the unstoppable Lionel Messi were central to a third at Qatar 2022.
