Lionel Scaloni and a luxury reinforcement for the national team: who is the world champion who joins the tour in the United States

Finally a smile for Lisandro Martínez in a year that didn’t start in the best way for him. The world champion defender, called up at the last minute by Lionel Scaloni, will participate in the tour of the Argentine national team in March which will see him engaged on Friday 22nd against El Salvador at the Lincoln Financial Field stadium in Philadelphia and on Tuesday 26th against Costa Rica at the Coliseum stadium in Los Angeles.

The 26-year-old defender was unable to add official minutes dressed in the Albiceleste throughout 2023 due to injuries. And in early February he suffered a grade 2 sprain of the medial collateral ligament in his right knee playing for Manchester United. The English club announced in the official press release that the recovery will last eight weeks, and will conclude at the end of this month.

Licha will arrive with just enough for these friendlies and, obviously, will not film the game. However, taking into account that he has not been called up for a long time due to force majeure and that this is his last call-up before the Copa América, Scaloni and his technical staff have decided to include him, subject to agreement with United. .

The defender had to come off 20 minutes into the second half of Manchester United’s 3-0 win over West Ham in the Premier League. Vladimir Coufal fell on his right knee as they were fighting for a ball that went over the baseline.

Martínez worked hard on his rehabilitation to be able to take part in Argentina’s tour of the United States. The goal is to arrive at full strength and with a good run at the big mid-year event in North America where Scaloneta will defend the title won in 2021 in Brazil.

This time Scaloni had several defeats due to injury, especially in defense. He did not cite for this reason Marcos Acuna, Gonzalo Montiel AND Guido Rodriguez. And he must have been disaffected Marco Senesi for a tear. Instead she called Nicola Valentini, from Boca. Now Martínez is added.

The Biancocelesti delegation will meet next Monday on American soil to begin training. The coach will undergo four training sessions before the first friendly of the Tour, in which he will finish defining the list for the Copa América.

The others summoned

In addition to Lisandro Martínez and Valentini, Scaloni mentioned the goalkeepers FrancoArmani, Walter Benitez AND Emiliano Martinez; and the defenders German scoundrel, Nehuen Perez, Nicola Otamendi, Cristiano Romero, Nicola Tagliafico, Nahuel Molina AND Valentino Barco.

The midfielders will be Exequiel Palacios, Rodrigo DePaul, Leandro Paredes, Alexis MacAllister, Enzo Fernandez AND Giovani Lo Celso.

In the meantime, there will be available attackers Alessandro Garnacho, Facundo Goodnight, Valentino Carboni, Angelo Di Maria, Lionel Messi, Giuliano Alvarez, Lautaro Martinez AND Paolo Dybala.