Who will realise childhood dreams, who will mourn? Now a slightly different battle begins, the battle for the 23 available seats on the plane to Germany
Photo: Vid Ponikvar / Sportida
The last two major competitions have been different. Also because of the epidemic of covida, the teams competing at Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup were able to take 26 players each to the final tournaments. But European Football Association (UEFA) has changed the rule, bringing the number of players each national team can have in a major competition back to 23. Slovenian selector Matjaž Kek will therefore take just as many players to Germany and not one more.
With Euro 2024 starting on 14. On June 6, Matjaž Kek still has plenty of time to put together the best possible line-up to make Slovenia as strong as possible in Germany. But the fact is that the battle for a seat on the plane that will take Slovenia to Germany is already on. And it will be really interesting to see who will be able to convince Kek and who will not. Who will realise childhood dreams and who will mourn.
Matjaž Kek should have no major dilemmas, the Slovenian football pool is what it is. The national team’s pool of players is not very wide, as evidenced by the fact that Matjaž Kek offered the chance to play to “only” 26 players in the just-ended qualifiers.
The following players have been given the opportunity:
GOALKEEPERS: Jan Oblak (8 matches), Vid Belec (1), Matevž Vidovšek (1).
DEFENDERS: Žan Karničnik (10), Jure Balkovec (5), Miha Blažič (6), Jaka Bijol (10), Erik Janža (6), Petar Stojanović (9), Vanja Drkušić (4), David Brekalo (5).
MIDFIELDERS: Jon Gorenc Stanković (5), Benjamin Verbič (9), Sandi Lovrić (7), Miha Zajc (4), Jasmin Kurtić (6), Tomi Horvat (1), Adam Gnezda Čerin (10), Timi Max Elšnik (8).
ATTACKERS: Andraž Šporar (7), Benjamin Šeško (9), Žan Celar (2), Jan Mlakar (8), Žan Vipotnik (8), Andres Vombergar (1), Luka Zahović (1).
Aljaž Ivačič, Martin Turk, Žan Zaletel, David Zec, Domen Črnigoj, Nino Žugelj and Aljoša Matko were also in the line-up, but did not get a chance to play. That’s 33 players in total, which means that 10 of them will definitely not see Euro 2024. It will also be interesting to see if anyone else knocks on the selector’s door in the coming months, which is not an easy door to open.
- Slovenia will have to report the final list of players for Euro 2024 by 7 July at the latest. June.
Matjaž Kek is a personnel traditionalist who is reluctant to change players or blindly trusts them when they get to the point that he thinks they deserve it. This was the case in 2010, and it will no doubt be the case again next year when Slovenia will be one of the 24 teams playing at the European Championships in Germany.
This text was automatically translated using AI.
Author: editorial Football Planet
Euro2024
National Team
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