Benfica’s coach, Roger Schmidt, assured on Tuesday that striker Rafa will not return to the Portuguese soccer team to play in the World Cup in Qatar, despite the fact that this has been a much-discussed issue in recent days.
According to the rojillo coach, the player “didn’t make the decision” to “focus on Benfica and not play for the national team without thinking about it” and the striker’s choice “is final”, despite being “in great shape”. and, so that everyone returns to discussing the option of him “.
“He will not go to the World Cup and the national team. But, regardless of that, Portugal is a great team, they can have a great World Cup, but surely without Rafa”, assured Roger Schmidt, at a press conference. in Seixal.
The coach, who this week will know which players of his team will or will not be chosen to represent their teams, assumed, however, that he wants all his players to be called up and “to be world champions, in the best of cases” . “.
The German coach stressed that “it is a great honor for all the players to represent the national team, especially when there is a World Cup”, but he is not afraid of having ‘disillusioned’ elements working with him during the competition if they are not. called to represent their countries.
“The players who go to the World Cup, of course, will be very happy, they will give their best and those who stay here, stay. We will see what happens this week, which players are called up. Of course we can have some talks, but my feeling is that everyone sees the situation very realistically,” Schmidt said.
The Portuguese soccer coach, Fernando Santos, announces this Thursday the 26 players chosen for the final phase of the 2022 World Cup.
Benfica striker Rafa has been in clear evidence in the ‘incarnates’, which led Fernando Santos himself to recently say that, if the player wanted to “talk”, the coach would ask him “time and place”.
All the national coaches will have to announce, throughout this week, the final list of 26 players who will attend the competition that takes place between November 20 and December 18, in Qatar.
Source: TSF
