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Top Ten: Great Footballers Who Never Played at the World Cup

Ryan Giggs
When you think about it, the world is a cruel place: pubs are too expensive, women are too mean and exquisite footballers like Ryan Giggs never get to play at World Cups. Cruel, indeed.
Captain of England schoolboys, the Premier League’s most decorated player (11 top division English league title medals) didn’t qualify for the full team because of his Welsh grandparents and the fact he was actually born in Cardiff. So he plumped for Wales.
In 1993, the Welsh capital hosted a pivotal qualifying match against Romania. Paul Bodin smashed a crucial penalty against the crossbar with the scores at 1-1 and the Hagi-led Romanians eventually won out 1-2.
At 35 years old, the phrase ‘maybe next time, Ryan’ surely doesn’t apply anymore.

Alfredo di Stefano
One of football’s most famous names never got to conduct his business on the world stage either, mostly due to his cavalier attitude to nationalism. During his lifetime (that we know of) the great Di Stefano played for Argentina, Colombia and Spain.
In 1950, when he was “Argentinian”, his home country applied to be host and were declined, so they  refused to play. In 1954 he was ineligible. In 1958 Spain failed to make the final cut.And in Chile, in 1962, he was injured.

Eric Cantona
An undisputed kung fu kicking, trawler-loving Man U legend, “King Eric” never managed to assert his wayward genius on the world scene. In 1988, after comparing then national coach Henri Michel to a piece of “shit”, he was dropped from the national side for 12 long months. He would, however, have definitely made the cut in 1994 should France have qualified. (They conceded a last-minute Bulgarian winner in the final qualification game in Paris, which David Ginola was subsequently blamed for.)
After that incident at Selhurst Park in 1995, Cantona never played for France again.

George Weah
Despite being a global soccer kingpin, (he is still the only African player to be crowned World Player of the Year, in 1995), George Weah’s sublime talents were never to be celebrated at the World’s Greatest Tournament. Under the guidance and tutelage of a certain Arsene Wenger at Monaco he blossomed into an international player of some repute, before moving to Paris St Germain and then becoming a superstar at the title-winning AC Milan side (1996 and 1999).
Despite funding Liberia efforts from his own increasingly bulging pocket, his beloved national side could not qualify for the World Cup, falling an agonising one point short in 2002.

Jari Litmanen
Having made 124 appearances for Finland, despite his country’s obvious lack of footballing pedigree, Jari Litmanen could never be accused of not being up for the cause. Supremely gifted with a career spanning such footballing luminaries as Barcelona, Ajax and Liverpool, Litmanen never got to ignite the world stage.

Bernd Schuster
‘The Blond Angel’, Bernd Schuster, was a playmaking German genius with oodles of verve and talent and a big ol' dollop of bad attitude for equal measure. Unfortunately, this latter attribute didn’t endear him to national coaches. Despite his obvious talent, he was largely overlooked by his country, earning a measly 21 caps.

Abedi Pele
Ghana might be the first African nation to qulaify for next year’s World Cup, but it wasn’t quite so straightforward back in the days of Abedi Pele. African footballer of the Year from 1991 to 1993, Pele was a major feature in the four-time French-title-winning Marseille side.
He earned the man-of-the-match award in the 1993 European Cup victory over AC Milan.
He was a genius.
He never played at the World Cup.

George Best
A man that needs no introduction. At the peak of his footballing powers, George Best nearly (and practically single-handedly) took his beloved Northern Ireland to the World Cup Finals, in both 1966 and 1970, but it just wasn’t to be. A win in Albania would have meant a play-off match with Switzerland in 1966. They drew. In the pivotal match against the Soviets for 1970 qualification, Best was injured. His team-mates lost 2-0.

Stan Bowles
Denis Law called him ‘100% Talent’. He only played five times for England, and once volleyed the FA Cup over sparking a near riot at Sunderland, but Stan Bowles was indeed 100% talent. At his peak between 1975 and 1978, he scored a record 11 goals in QPR’s UEFA Cup run in an outstanding team that just narrowly missed winning the League, by a point, from Liverpool in 1975/76.

Paolo Di Canio
Friend of the Ultras and one of the most exciting talents the English Premier League and Italian Serie A has ever seen, if it wasn’t for Paolo Di Canio’s enviable rebellious persona, he could have been one of the world’s most revered players.
Why then, amongst a bunch of footballing mavericks that could have made this list, does Paolo stand out. Because he was NEVER capped for his country.

	At the peak of his footballing powers, George Best nearly (and practicaly single-handedly) took his beloved Northern Ireland to the World Cup Finals