Now that the Scottish Premiership action is over, all eyes turn to Qatar with the World Cup kick-off less than a week away.
Sadly, Scotland aren't involved in the controversial tournament and are instead in southern Turkey for a friendly match as England and Wales prepare to take on the rest of the world in the Middle East. There is plenty of SPFL representation in various squads, however. Celtic 's Aaron Mooy is joined in the Australia squad by Hearts trip Kye Rowles, Cammy Devlin and Nathaniel Atkinson, as well as Hibs star Martin Boyle and Dundee United's Aziz Behich.
Josip Juranovic is in the Croatia squad, while Cameron Carter-Vickers is with the US national team, who start their campaign against Wales next week. Daizen Maeda is the only one of the Hoops Japanese contingent in Qatar after Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate were snubbed when it came to selection for the Samurai Blue. Here's your pre-World Cup news in brief.
Southgate's £1billion boys
England’s World Cup squad is worth more than £1billion and valued higher than any other nation at the tournament. The value of Gareth Southgate’s squad is boosted by captain Harry Kane, who is understood to be worth £78.85million in today’s market.
However, he is only England’s third-most valuable asset, ranking behind youngsters Phil Foden and Jude Bellingham, who are valued at £96m and £87.5m, respectively. Behind England, Brazil and France are the next most valuable sides at the tournament. Meanwhile, a further six nations have squads valued in excess of £500m.
Five-time World Cup winners Brazil have named a squad worth £990m, with stars including Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo and Neymar. Real Madrid pair Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo have been priced at £105m and £70m, with Paris Saint-Germain playmaker Neymar worth £65m.
As for the French, Kylian Mbappe is the most expensive player at the tournament with a market value of £140m to take their overall squad worth to £930m. Behind him, Aurelien Tchouameni and Christopher Nkunku are both valued at £70m.
Ramsey reaction
Aaron Ramsey admits he has to ‘pinch himself’ at the prospect of going to the World Cup with Wales. The former Rangers loanee is on a redemption arc with Ligue 1 side Nice, after a turbulent six months at Ibrox brought his club career to a major crossroads. Ramsey was hailed as a marquee signing for the Light Blues as he aimed to get over the horror of his Juventus spell in Glasgow but to no avail.
The Welshman’s missed penalty in the Europa League final and smattering of appearances for Gio Van Bronckhorst’s team brought resentment over his acquisition, while Nice offered the 31-year-old a lifeline that he has seemingly taken in his stride. Ramsey will be part of a historic Welsh side heading to Qatar for the first time in over half a century and admits playing at the ‘highest level’ has done wonders for his preparation.
He said: “For me, it has just been focusing on taking every game as it comes and making sure I am doing the right things and ticking things off as the weeks go by. I am feeling good. The staff in Nice have been brilliant, and I’ve got a couple of people I work with on the side as well.
“I have played quite a few minutes, and there were a lot of positives to going there. It is a great project to be a part of, playing at the highest level and playing in Europe. It felt like that was the best place for me to be at this time.”
France's Benzema doubt
Didier Deschamps has denied that his late call-up of striker Marcus Thuram is because of injury concerns over Karim Benzema. The Ballon D’Or winner has only played 27 minutes since October 19 - and missed their final four La Liga matches before the break - because of “muscle fatigue”.
The French head coach only named 25 players last week - and left out Lucas Digne and Kurt Zouma. He has now added the Borussia Monchengladbach forward - the son of France 98 hero Lilian Thuram - to his squad for the first time since the Euro 2021 finals. Asked if the arrival of Thuram means that Benzema’s participation is in doubt, Deschamps said: “No. It is true that I had an initial list of 24. But I knew that I would take 26. I wanted to take a step back to have the clearest view after all last matches this weekend. There is not a connection with Karim or another striker who could give us worries. It is to give a balance in the squad between defenders and attackers.”
Premier League packs out World Cup squads
The Premier League will provide more World Cup players than any other division, with 135 of the 831 players (16 per cent) at the tournament plying their trade in the English top flight. Spain’s LaLiga is contributing 83 players, ahead of Germany’s Bundesliga on 78 and Italy’s Serie A on 67.
All but one of Gareth Southgate’s squad are based in England, with Jude Bellingham of Borussia Dortmund the only exception. Brazil and Portugal are also in double figures for Premier League representation (12 and 10 players respectively), while Australia, Canada, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia are the only nations without a single player from the English top flight.
FIFA chief in peace claim
FIFA president Gianni Infantino has called for the forthcoming World Cup in Qatar to be the catalyst for a “first step to peace” in Ukraine. Infantino addressed world leaders at the G20 Summit in Bali. Russian national teams and clubs have been banned from playing in FIFA competitions since the country invaded Ukraine in February.
Infantino accepted it was “naive” to believe that football can solve the world’s problems, but told the Summit: “Because football unites the world, this particular FIFA World Cup, with five billion people watching it, can be a trigger for a positive gesture, for a sign or a message of hope: “Russia hosted the last World Cup in 2018, and Ukraine is bidding to host the World Cup in 2030.
“Maybe the current World Cup, starting in five days, can really be that positive trigger. So my plea, to all of you, is to think on a temporary ceasefire, for one month, for the duration of the FIFA World Cup, or at least the implementation of humanitarian corridors, or anything that could lead to the resumption of dialogue as a first step to peace. You are the world leaders; you have the ability to influence the course of history.”
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