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The 32 squad list for the Qatar World Cup was officially confirmed after the registration deadline on Tuesday.
Fifa delivers some intriguing numbers behind them:
2.03m
Andries Noppert, who stands at 2.03m, is the tallest player in the tournament. The Netherlands goalkeeper is followed by his counterparts Serbia’s Vanja Milinkovic-Savic (2.02m) and Thibaut Courtois (2m) of Belgium.
At 1.98m, Australian defender Harry Souttar is the tallest outfield player.
An unprecedented 163 of the 831 participating players are based in the English Premier League.
LaLiga has 86. The English top flight had a Russia 2018-high 124 of 736 players.
40
Mexico goalkeeper Alfredo Talavera will be 40 years and 63 days when the tournament gets under way, making him the oldest player in Qatar. He could become just the eighth man to play in the World Cup in his 40s after Cameroon icon Roger Milla, Egypt great Essam El Hadary, Italian Dino Zoff, Northern Ireland’s Pat Jennings, Peter Shilton of England, Tunisia’s Ali Boumnijel and Faryd Mondragon of Colombia.
26
Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the only two nations with all 26 players based in their domestic league.
117Cristiano Ronaldo has 117 international goals to his name – astonishingly more than the entire 26-man squads 15 other nations have collectively: Australia, Cameroon, Ecuador, Ghana, Japan, Korea Republic, Morocco, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Spain, Tunisia, USA and Wales.
18
Youssoufa Moukoko will be the youngest player at the tournament. The German forward will turn 18 the day Qatar 2022 gets under way. The youngest was Norman Whiteside, who was 17 years and 41 days when he played for Northern Ireland against Yugoslavia during the World Cup in Spain in 1982. Moukoko will be one of six 18-year-olds at Qatar 2022.
Others are Garang Kuol (Australia), Gavi (Spain), Jewison Bennette (Costa Rica), Bilal El Khannous (Morocco) and Abdul Fatawu Issahaku (Ghana).
17
Bayern Munich, with 17 players, are the best-represented club in Qatar 2022. The Bavarian behemoths are represented in the squads of Cameroon, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Morocco, the Netherlands and Senegal. Barcelona and Manchester City will have 16 players apiece at the tournament.
10
Ten Russian 2018 winners made France’s squad for the defence of their crown: Alphonse Aréola, Ousmane Dembélé, Olivier Giroud, Antoine Griezmann, Lucas Hernandez, Hugo Lloris, Steve Mandanda, Kylian Mbappé, Benjamin Pavard, Raphaël Varane.
10
Thomas Müller is the Qatar-bound player with the most World Cup goals to his name (10). He is followed by Cristiano Ronaldo (10), Luis Suárez (7), Harry Kane (6), Lionel Messi (6) and Neymar (6).
5
Four players have been included in a World Cup squad for a record-equalling fifth time. They are Lionel Messi (Argentina), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), as well as Andres Guardado and Guillermo Ochoa (both Mexico). Antonio Carbajal, Rafa Marquez (both from Mexico) and Lothar Matthäus (Germany) are the only other players to have made their nations’ World Cup squads on five occasions.
