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From zero to hero in four years flat
The World Cup is football’s most celebrated event, but there have only ever been 20 editions of the tournament since the inaugural contest in 1930. Plenty can happen in the four years between competitions – as shown by this slideshow, which picks out nine players who would probably have laughed had you told them they’d be playing at Russia 2018…
Franco Armani (Argentina)
Armani is in the unusual position of being uncapped but also the favourite to start in goal for his country this summer. Sergio Romero has long been established as Argentina’s first-choice net-minder, but the Manchester United man has been ruled out of the 2018 World Cup through injury, thus opening the door for Armani.
The 31-year-old moved back to his homeland with River Plate last year after eight successful seasons with Atletico Nacional in Colombia; as recently as last September he was openly pondering seeking Colombian citizenship. Now he looks set to beat Chelsea’s Willy Caballero and Tigres’ Nahuel Guzman to his country’s No.1 jersey. He can’t have seen that coming in 2014, when Argentina were the beaten finalists.
Iago Aspas (Spain)
Aspas’ final touch of the ball as a Liverpool player couldn’t have been more disastrous. With the title-challenging Reds desperate for an equaliser against Chelsea in April 2014, the Spaniard stepped up to take a corner in second-half stoppage time. Instead of floating a cross into the penalty area Aspas decided to pull it back to the edge of the box, only for the pass to be intercepted and Chelsea to race down the other end to score a second.
Unsurprisingly, the striker wasn’t even in contention to make Spain’s squad for the 2014 World Cup, but 49 goals in 86 matches for Celta Vigo in the last two years earned him a place on the plane to Russia.
Felipe Baloy (Panama)
Panama fell agonisingly short in their bid to reach the 2014 World Cup, missing out on a place in the inter-confederation play-offs by a slender margin of three points. That was considered the last chance for the country’s golden generation to reach the tournament, but it turned out that the current crop of players still had one more cycle left in them.
The Canal Men clinched a spot in Russia in dramatic fashion, beating Costa Rica 2-1 as the United States succumbed to a shock defeat by Trinidad and Tobago. It means captain Baloy, now 37, will lead Panama to a World Cup, a dream he surely thought had died.
Essam El-Hadary (Egypt)
Egypt were the kings of Africa for much of the 2000s, winning three consecutive Cups of Nations in the second half of the decade. Yet despite their continental supremacy, the Pharaohs failed in their mission to reach a third World Cup, falling short in qualification for both Germany 2006 and South Africa 2010.
They didn’t make it to Brazil 2014 either, a setback which appeared to have ended El-Hadary’s dreams of participating on the biggest stage of all. Incredibly, though, the goalkeeper is still playing at the age of 45 and could become the tournament’s oldest ever player in Russia.
N’Golo Kante (France)
Kante was a rare bright spot in a disappointing campaign for Chelsea, the ball-winning midfielder a model of consistency in the centre of the park. The Frenchman looks like he’s been operating at the highest level for decades, but just four years ago he had yet to play a single minute of top-tier football.
Kante did eventually grace Ligue 1 with Caen in 2014/15, the season in which he rejected an invitation to join Mali’s Africa Cup of Nations squad. That proved to be a wise decision: after winning Premier League titles with both Leicester and Chelsea, Kante arrives at the 2018 World Cup as one of France’s key players.
Simeon Nwankwo (Nigeria)
Only three members of Nigeria’s preliminary 25-man squad for the 2018 World Cup are over the age of 30, with key players such as Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho and Alex Iwobi all 22 or under.
Crotone striker Nwankwo is 26, but he’s inexperienced at international level having only made his Super Eagles bow in Monday’s friendly with DR Congo. Mind you, four years ago Russia seemed a world away: Nwankwo had just failed to score in 21 appearances for Portuguese strugglers Gil Vicente.
Nick Pope (England)
The World Cup probably wasn’t on Pope’s radar at the start of 2017/18, let alone four years ago. Tom Heaton was Burnley's undisputed No.1, but his shoulder injury left the door open for Pope, who seized his chance tremendously.
David de Gea was perhaps the only shot-stopper who outdid the 26-year-old last season, and Pope was rewarded with a place in Gareth Southgate’s squad for Russia. Involvement at the World Cup would cap a remarkable rise for a player who, in summer 2014, had just completed a loan at League Two side York.
Ricardo Quaresma (Portugal)
Quaresma hasn’t had much luck when it comes to international tournaments. Injury prevented him from taking part in Euro 2004 on home soil, before the then-Porto man was left out of the squad for the 2006 World Cup.
His on-field contributions were limited to just 100 minutes at the European Championship two years later, with Quaresma then failing to make the cut for the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, and not playing a single second at Euro 2012 in between. The ex-Barcelona trickster would have been forgiven for calling it a day, but he’s now back in the fold at the age of 34.
Sebastian Rudy (Germany)
It looked for some time like Rudy would spend the rest of his career at Hoffenheim, the club he joined from Stuttgart in 2010. The versatile German thrived at both right-back and in midfield during his seven years with die Kraichgauer, before earning a transfer to Bayern Munich in 2017.
Such a switch was always going to help Rudy’s international aspirations, with the 28-year-old included in Joachim Low’s travelling party for this summer’s World Cup. Given he only had one cap to his name before the 2014 edition, Rudy would have been an outside bet to make the squad for Russia four years ago.
