The dismissal of André Onana, from Cameroon, hours before the match against Serbia this Monday (28th) was a surprise. He is out of the World Cup after an argument with team coach Robert Song, according to international media.
The match ended 3-3, keeping the African team’s chances of qualifying alive.
In addition to the goalkeeper, other players have also been dismissed from their national teams for cases of indiscipline, all of them with history and importance within the teams, such as Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng, from Ghana, in the 2014 World Cup.
The two did not even play the third group stage match that year, against Portugal.
Muntari allegedly attacked Ghanaian FA executive committee member Moses Armah at a meeting. Boateng, meanwhile, was accused of offending national team coach Kwesi Appiah and refused to apologise. The player declared that he did not insult the coach, but that he was insulted.
In 2010, it was the French team that experienced a crisis. After a 2-0 defeat, Anelka, one of the great strikers of the team, cursed Raymond Doménech, then the team’s coach, and the confusion was reported by the newspaper L’Équipe. Anelka was expelled from the concentration.
France was also unsuccessful, being eliminated in the group stage without winning any of their games.
Ireland leader in 2002, Roy Keane had a rift with coach Mick McCarthy. He criticized the team’s preparation for the World Cup, saying that the city of Saipan, chosen for training, was not ideal.
Being at Manchester United, under Alex Ferguson, Keane believed that the methods were far from elite football. He was determined to leave the team even before the competition, and McCarthy made the final decision to leave him out.
Of all the players, only Croatia’s Kalinic must have felt the consequences of his dismissal during the 2018 World Cup. He refused to take the field in the final minutes of a group match against Nigeria claiming a bad back and was cut.
The point is that Croatia reached the final, being defeated by France. There was an attempt to hand the silver medal to the player, but he refused, stating that he “would not have entered the field in Russia”.
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