Lionel Scaloni has officially submitted his final 26-man roster for the 2026 World Cup, locking in the squad that will travel to North America to defend Argentina’s global crown. While a few surprise names managed to punch their tickets, Aston Villa’s Emiliano Buendia and Bournemouth’s Marcos Senesi emerged as two of the most glaring omissions from La Albiceleste.
With the definitive Argentina roster drop on Thursday evening, several high-profile players found themselves on the outside looking in, but none sparked more debate than Buendia and Senesi given their standout campaigns in the English Premier League.
Emiliano Buendia concluded a spectacular 2025-26 season on the highest possible note, netting a crucial goal in the UEFA Europa League final to lift Aston Villa to a 3-0 triumph over SC Freiburg. Racking up 11 goals and nine assists across 54 appearances, the playmaker was an indispensable starter for a Villa side that secured a fourth-place Premier League finish alongside international teammate Emiliano “Dibu” Martinez, though only the star goalkeeper ultimately made Scaloni’s cut.
Concurrently, Marcos Senesi regularly wore the captain’s armband for a historic Bournemouth squad that surged to a sixth-place Premier League finish, securing European qualification for the first time in club history. Named the Cherries’ Player of the Season, the rock-solid central defender anchored the backline while chipping in five assists over 39 appearances, making his exclusion from the World Cup roster a bitter pill to swallow.
Potential reasons for Buendia and Senesi ommissions
With rising stars Franco Mastantuono and Gianluca Prestianni reportedly set to be excluded, Emiliano Buendia was widely projected to be the one to provide creative depth from the right flank. However, despite his trophy-laden campaign with Aston Villa, a chronic lack of playing time under Scaloni for the national team ultimately doomed his chances of booking a ticket to North America.
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Since logging a brief 10-minute cameo in his international debut against Colombia in 2022, Buendia has only registered 20 additional minutes for his country, coming in a friendly against Angola. Due to that lack of integration, Scaloni elected to rely on options with more tactical familiarity; furthermore, Como’s breakout star Nico Paz secured a spot on the plane as a primary creative understudy to Lionel Messi, effectively closing the door on Buendia.
In Senesi’s case, the competition for the central defensive position proved too formidable to crack. With veteran Nicolas Otamendi and Tottenham’s Cristian Romero locked in as the starting center-back pairing, Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez was a guarantee as the primary left-footed cover, while Facundo Medina’s ability to slide outside and deputize at left-back gave him a tactical versatility that ultimately pushed him ahead of Senesi in the pecking order.
Full list of 29 players excluded
From the initial 55-player provisional player pool, head coach Lionel Scaloni chopped down the roster by 29 names to solidify his final squad for the upcoming World Cup across the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The full list of players who failed to make the definitive tournament cut includes the following:
- Walter Benitez
- Facundo Cambeses
- Santiago Beltran
- Agustin Giay
- Nicolas Capaldo
- Kevin Mac Allister
- Lucas Martinez Quarta
- Marcos Senesi
- German Pezzella
- Lautaro Di Lollo
- Zaid Romero
- Marcos Acuña
- Gabriel Rojas
- Maximo Perrone
- Guido Rodriguez
- Aníbal Moreno
- Milton Delgado
- Alan Varela
- Ezequiel Fernandez
- Nicolas Dominguez
- Emiliano Buendia
- Franco Mastantuono
- Tomas Aranda
- Alejandro Garnacho
- Matias Soule
- Claudio Echeverri
- Gianluca Prestianni
- Santiago Castro
- Mateo Pellegrino
