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Footballers will pause their commitment to club action and a lucky few groups will travel to Qatar this winter to participate in the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The quadrennial competition will being on November 20, with the final set to be held on December 18.
It is the first football World Cup being held during the season, and there are likely to be pros and cons to this decision. The 32 qualified teams have been divided into eight groups.
This article will focus on Group G, which consists of Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, and Cameroon. Brazil, being one of the favorites in the tournament, are expected to top the group. However, the likes of Cameroon and Serbia can cause upsets while Switzerland are always a tough unit to beat.
Mentioned below are the most capped active players for each team who will likely be heading to Qatar this month.
#1 Dani Alves - Brazil - 124 caps (Most capped player in the group)
Dani Alves is 39 years old but is still an important member in the Brazil national team. He has won two Copa Americas (in 2007 and 2019) and has a few Confederations Cups to his name as well.
The right-back has enjoyed a glorious career, most of which he spent at Barcelona. He recently signed for UNAM in Liga MX but is currently training with Barcelona to keep himself fit.
If Alves is called up, this will probably be his last hurrah with Brazil, and the country has a good chance of going all the way this time. They have a talented and exciting squad, with several stars in great form. Alves may not start every game and could just feature from the bench, but his leadership and experience will only benefit the Seleção.
#2 Dušan Tadić - Serbia - 90 caps
Dušan Tadić is the captain of Serbia and the most capped player within the current squad. Tadić made his debut at a World Cup in 2018 when Serbia managed to qualify, and the team has continued to develop and get better over the last four years. He is currently 33 years old, an elder statesman of the team. As an attacking midfielder, he is an important component of the lineup.
Tadić spent four years at Southampton before he signed for Ajax in 2018. Under Erik ten Hag at Ajax, he reinvented himself as an orthodox striker and found great success.
Tadić can not only pick out players with his wide range of passing but is also an adept goalscorer himself. With players like Aleksandr Mitrović, Sergej Milinković-Savić, and others around him, Serbia could cause problems for opponents.
#3 Xherdan Shaqiri - Switzerland - 108 caps
Xherdan Shaqiri is only 31 years old, and as far as most capped players go, he is one of the younger ones in the tournament. Shaqiri has been a stalwart for Switzerland since his debut in 2010 and has played for clubs like Bayern Munich and Liverpool during his career. An exciting and explosive winger, his short stature allows him to dribble past opponents with pace and cause havoc in defenses.
Shaqiri currently plays for Chicago Fire in the MLS, and alongside Granit Xhaka and Ricardo Rodriguez, he is a leader in the national team. Switzerland, similar to the other teams within this group, have several exciting young players at their disposal. Breel Embolo, Noah Okafor, and Denis Zakaria are just some of those players. They are a team that no one should take lightly.
#4 Vincent Aboubakar - Cameroon - 88 caps
Vincent Aboubakar is Cameroon's most capped player and is likely to be traveling to Qatar this month. The striker won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2017 and is a powerful and physical striker. Aboubakar does lack the technical quality that some well-rounded forwards possess, but Cameroon also have strikers like Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Karl Toko Ekambi.
Aboubakar spent six years at FC Porto before a brief stint at Besiktas, and he currently plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. On paper, Cameroon arguably have the weakest squad within the group, but they still have some brilliant individual talent. The country has always produced brilliant strikers and will be relying on the current ones to progress past this group stage.
