Russian national team coach Fabio Capello has left out Andrei Arshavin from his preliminary 30-man World Cup squad.
Arshavin, 32, has been a star for Russia in previous European Championships in 2008 and 2012 yet has never played in a World Cup after the Russians did not qualify for the 2010 tournament in South Africa.
The Zenit St. Petersburg attacker has not been a regular in Capello’s squad for quite some time but many believed he would get one last chance to prove his worth by making the 30-man roster before Russia head to Brazil. The former Arsenal star is not going to Brazil.
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So Arshavin, who has 75 caps and 17 goals to his name, will be watching on as the country he captained up until 2012 will play at their first World Cup since 2002 and only their third-ever World Cup finals.
One other notable omission from Capello’s squad is former Tottenham forward Romain Pavlychenko. Below is the squad in full.
Russia’s 30-man squad for World Cup
Goalkeepers: Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow), Yury Lodygin (Zenit St Petersburg), Sergei Ryzhikov (Rubin Kazan)
Defenders: Alexander Anyukov (Zenit St Petersburg), Alexei Berezutsky, Vasily Berezutsky, Sergei Ignashevich, Georgy Shchennikov (all CSKA Moscow), Vladimir Granat, Alexei Kozlov (both Dynamo Moscow), Andrei Yeshchenko (Anzhi Makhachkala), Dmitry Kombarov (Spartak Moscow), Andrei Semenov (Terek Grozny)
Midfielders: Igor Denisov, Yury Zhirkov (both Dynamo Moscow), Alan Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Yury Gazinsky, Roman Shirokov (both FC Krasnodar), Denis Glushakov (Spartak Moscow), Pavel Mogilevets (Rubin Kazan), Viktor Faizulin, Oleg Shatov (both Zenit St Petersburg)
Forwards: Vladimir Bystrov (Anzhi Makhachkala), Alexander Kerzhakov (Zenit St Petersburg), Artem Dzyuba (Rostov), Alexei Ionov, Alexander Kokorin (both Dynamo Moscow), Maxim Kanunnikov (Amkar Perm), Pavel Pogrebnyak (Reading/ENG), Alexander Samedov (Lokomotiv Moscow)