PHOTOS: Meet 7 Great Players That Never Played For Their Country’s National Team

• In football, not everyone eventually gets called up to represent his national team.
• A lot of factors may cause this, such as lack of success at club level, injury, lack of consistent form or stubborn character amongst others.

In this article, EKO HOT BLOG will be showing you 7 players who never played for their national teams at all.

(1.) Name: Mikel Arteta

Nationality: Spain

Notable Clubs: Arsenal and Everton

Out because of: Xabi Alonso & Sergio Busquets

Skillful midfielder and hardworking, he is a player any national team love to have. But in a national team like Spain where there are  numerous contenders, he never played even once for them.

(2.) Name: Maxwell

Nationality: Brazil

Notable Clubs : PSG and Barcelona.

Out because of: Marcelo & Filipe Luis

He was like many Brazilian fullbacks who are blessed by technical ability. Having played for big teams like Ajax, Inter, Barcelona and PSG before retirement, it is hard to believe that he never had a single international cap for his country.

(3.) Name: Mauro Zarate

Nationality: Argentina

Notable Club: Lazio

Out because of: Sergio Agüero & Ezequiel Lavezzi

He never played for his country of birth, which is Argentina, till this day.

(4.) Name: Michu

Nationality: Spain

Notable Club: Swansea and Napoli.

Out because of: David Villa & Fernando Torres.

He retired early because of persistent injury problems. He never got the chance to play for Spain.

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(5.) Name: Maxi Lopez

Nationality: Argentina

Club: Sampdoria

Out because of: Gonzalo Higuaín & Carlos Tévez

Wanda Nara (Mauro Icardi’s wife) ex-partner, Maxi Lopez never played for the national team till this day.

(6.) Name: José Enrique

Nationality: Spain

Notable Club: Liverpool

Out because of: Jordi Alba & Nacho Monreal

Although Spain has a descent left backs down the years, José Enrique should have earned a senior cap. At this rate, he can’t get into the national team anymore.

(7.) Name: Paolo Cannavaro

Nationality: Italy

Notable Club: Napoli

Out because of: Leonardo Bonucci & Andrea Barzagli

Despite captaining a big team like Napoli, unlike his illustrious brother Fabio, who earned 136 Italy caps, he is yet to win his first cap. He finally retired, without a single international cap.

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