Paris Saint-Germain’s duo of David Luiz and Thiago have left out of the Brazil National team shortlist for the Copa America in th summer. The duo are normally regulars for club and country but have been omitted for this tournament.
Coach Dunga normally favours David Luiz and had always picked for the matches but he has left him out in the cold this time around. The national team announced a 40-man shortlist who are in the running for the 23 man squad to finalized before the 5th of May.
Real Madrid’s Marcelo has also not been included in the list. Both Marcelo and Silva have not had a very good relationship with the coach and it seems they will suffer the consequences by not taking part in the competition.
Brazil’s captain Neymar will also not take part in the Copa. The Barcelona team had a discussion with the Brazil Football federation and ti was decided that Neymar will only play for the National team in the Olympics but will not be a part of the Copa tournament.
Luis Enrique was delighted by the news and said the decision would be beneficial to all parties.
The decision to leave out Luiz is probably understandable by Dunga after the defender has failed to perform for his country in the qualifiers. Although his season with PSG was a record breaking one for the club the player has been known to have the occasional lapses of concentration.
Dunga was reappointed as the National team coach after the disastrous WOrld Cup campaign in their home country in 2014. Luiz was always a aprt of th team up until the recent announcement. The coach has preferred to give call ups to several youngsters who are playing in the domestic league.
The official twitter account of the Selecao posted the list of names:
Here is the full 40-man shortlist:
Goalkeepers: Alisson (Internacional), Diego Alves (Valencia), Ederson (Benfica), Marcelo Grohe (Gremio)
Defenders: Dani Alves (Barcelona), Rodrigo Caio (Sao Paulo), Fabinho (Monaco), Fagner (Corinthians), Gil (Shandong Luneng), Jemerson (Monaco), Filipe Luis (Atletico Madrid), Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain), Miranda (Inter), Gabriel Paulista (Arsenal), Alex Sandro (Juventus), Douglas Santos (Atletico Mineiro)
Midfielders: Rafinha Alcantara (Barcelona), Felipe Anderson (Lazio), Renato Augusto (Beijing Guoan), Casemiro (Real Madrid), Douglas Costa (Bayern Munich), Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool), Elias (Corinthians), Fernandinho (Manchester City), Paulo Henrique Ganso (Sao Paulo), Luiz Gustavo (Wolfsburg), Kaka (Orlando City), Lucas Lima (Santos), Lucas Moura (Paris Saint-Germain), Oscar (Chelsea), Walace (Gremio), Willian (Chelsea)
Forwards: Roberto Firmino (Liverpool), Gabriel (Santos), Hulk (Zenit), Gabriel Jesus (Palmeiras), Jonas (Benfica), Luan (Gremio), Ricardo Oliveira (Santos), Alex Teixeira (Jiangsu Suning)
