“I’m so glad I didn’t come home. That would have been a disaster,” Muzzy Izzet says. “But I was thinking, ‘What is the point?’.”
Izzet is casting his mind back to 2002 and remembering how it felt to be watching a World Cup finals from the substitutes’ bench. Turkey had just created history by beating Senegal to reach the last four in a World Cup that was co-hosted by Japan and South Korea, but Izzet was in little mood for celebrating.
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After five matches without kicking a ball, and not much in the way of conversation with his colleagues, Izzet, who was playing for Leicester City at the time, was ready to pack his bags and head home to the UK.
“You’re in your little football bubble and not in the greatest of places mentally,” Izzet tells The Athletic. “You’re thousands of miles from home and all you want to do is play football and be part of it, and at that moment in time I didn’t feel part of it.”
Plenty of footballers have experienced what it feels like to be in Izzet’s boots at a World Cup. In fact, exactly 100 outfield players have not seen any action at this World Cup in Qatar – for 88 of those footballers, whose teams have already been eliminated, that is not going to change. There are some big names too, including England’s James Maddison and Germany’s Karim Adeyemi.
Add goalkeepers into the mix too and the total rises to above 150 players. It is a staggering figure and makes you wonder why there was such a fuss made about who ended up getting picked for the 24th, 25th and 26th spots in World Cup squads. In the vast majority of cases those players were, literally, making up the numbers.
Talking to players who have been through this kind of experience in the past highlights a stark contrast in emotions. Some were totally broken by the experience and still find it difficult to speak about the World Cup years later. Others were so happy to be given a seat on the plane that it made little difference whether they got onto the pitch or not.
Quite where Liassine Cadamuro fits into that is genuinely difficult to know, but it is a wild and amusing story that the former Algeria defender tells about the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where he never played a minute but still managed to be booked for an act of time-wasting that made him a hero back home.
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“Destiny,” Cadamuro tells The Athletic. “It was my destiny that it happens like this — not to play and take a card. Even today people talk to me about it. The fans don’t forget. They tell me, ‘Thank you for what you did for the national team, and for your clearance’. It happens all the time. And if I had to do it again, I would do it without hesitation.”
Underrated World Cup Moment – Algeria substitute Liassine Cadamuro booting the ball away to waste time against Russia as a point was enough for Algeria to qualify from the group. Takes the yellow card, but our hero’s work was already done 😎 pic.twitter.com/ATDDCnSJwf
— Shutts (@Shuttsapalooza) June 12, 2018
To explain the background, Algeria were playing Russia in their final group game and needed a draw to go through to a last-16 tie against eventual champions Germany. With the match in stoppage time and the scoreline 1-1, the ball went out of play in front of the Algeria dugout. It is hard not to smile at what happened next.
As the Russia right-back Aleksei Kozlov ran to retrieve the ball to take the throw-in, Cadamuro decided to intervene. Wearing a bib and with a spare shirt draped around his neck, he hoofed the ball as high and as far as he could, up into the stand behind the dugouts. For fans of football shithousery, it was pure gold. The Russians, understandably, were furious.
“When you are on the bench, you are even more stressed because you don’t control anything – you are a spectator,” Cadamuro explains. “I couldn’t take it anymore. I imagined the worst — a (winning Russian) goal in the last minute. I think I would never have recovered. I knew that (by kicking the ball away) we were going to gain time, those seconds, that precious minute, that would bring us closer to our goal.
“I shot into the stands and then I started to hide in the bench, so that the referee would have to look for me. I first gave him the number of my captain Madjid Bougherra, who saw the scene but didn’t say anything – he knew why I was doing it. The referee came back annoyed and I told him I was No 17. And then I met the eyes of the Russian right-back – I think he must have hated me for days and days. The referee blew the final whistle and there are no words that can describe that moment.”
Cadamuro ended up feeling as though he played a small part in helping Algeria qualify for the knockout stage, even though he never got his boots dirty. To be clear, that didn’t take away the frustration that he felt at being left out for every game, but it did at least mean that he was “able to live some magical moments, which I will never forget”.
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For Stephen Warnock, part of Fabio Capello’s England squad in 2010 but one of its four members who never made an appearance in South Africa, going to a World Cup was a magical moment in itself.
“When we got the call-up and we were heading to London, there was myself, Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney in a plane taking off from Liverpool to go to meet up with the team,” Warnock tells The Athletic.
“Carra just turned around – and I remember it as clear as anything – and said, ‘The next time we come back here, we could be legends!’. And it was that thought process – imagine you did win it. Or imagine you did go far; just to be part of the squad would be amazing, and that was one of the things that always stuck in my mind.
“I was made up to be involved. I always said to my mates, ‘I’ve got the front row seat, I’m in every dressing room and I’m training with the team at a World Cup’. Tell me who wouldn’t want to do that!”
Warnock’s glass-half-full approach was partly a product of his personality but more down to the fact that he accepted from day one that he was going to that World Cup as first-choice left-back Ashley Cole’s “support act”. In other words, he knew his place in the pecking order.
Clearly, that will not be the case with every player who finds themselves on the periphery at a World Cup finals.
Some will be frustrated and disappointed to be overlooked, even resentful and angry.
“I can understand that (players will feel differently),” Warnock adds. “Whether that’s an ego thing with some people as well, that they think they’re better than they are, and that they think they should be playing above people…
“But I knew Ashley Cole was the best left-back in the world, so I knew my role in the squad before I got there. If it was a 50-50 chance and I didn’t play, then maybe it would have been completely different if I hadn’t got on the pitch. But between us, we got 109 caps and he got 107 of them, and that tells you everything.”
Where to go next on The Athletic…
- Messi ‘amor’ is everywhere in Argentina, where he is ‘all the superheroes in one’
- Why this World Cup is Africa’s most successful ever
Massimo Luongo has a different story to tell.
The Middlesbrough midfielder went to back-to-back World Cups with Australia, in 2014 and 2018, but never saw any action and was reduced to tears when it happened a second time.
For some context, Luongo had 36 caps to his name by the time of the 2018 World Cup and travelled to Russia hoping to start, not worrying about whether he would get any minutes. Bert van Marwijk, who was appointed Australia’s coach at the start of that year on a short-term contract, initially seemed torn as to what to do.
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“Every shape we did leading up to the first game, me and Mile (Jedinak) were swapping bibs,” Luongo tells The Athletic. “Maty Ryan (the goalkeeper) came up to me one day and said, ‘You know what, the manager did ask me, “I don’t know whether to play Mass or Mile. What do you think?”.’ So he was asking people for their advice, just because he didn’t know us that well. He obviously went for Mile, which I found out in the team meeting before the game.
“Van Marwijk then stuck to what he knew and didn’t want to move from it. I thought if we were winning any of the games, I would have come on for sure, to stiffen things up in midfield. But because we were chasing every game, or trying to get an equaliser, he never even said, ‘Mass, warm up’. I even wanted to speak to him, to say, ‘Put me in the No 10 position. Just fit me in somehow’. But there was no leeway. Nothing.”
Luongo admits the World Cup was a “touchy subject” afterwards and even now, four and a half years on, you can hear the disappointment in his voice .
“Because I thought I was going to be a big part of this World Cup, I said to my wife, ‘Come to Russia’, so she travelled by herself, she wanted to see me play and support me,” Luongo explains.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself because I had such a good season at Queens Park Rangers (in the English second tier). I was on the brink of a really big move – I had teams in Serie A, Germany and Belgium coming to watch me play. So I had a lot counting on that World Cup, just to try to push on.
“At one point I was probably in tears in my room because I knew after the second game, ‘Yeah, I’m not playing. I’ve been f—ed over here’. I don’t want to blame anyone because you always look at yourself first. But I just felt that I did everything right to get in the best position to play, and I didn’t get that chance.”
F— this.
I can’t do it.
I can’t get in the team.
I don’t know why I can’t get in the team.
I’m as good as them, aren’t I?
My daughter doesn’t know who I am.
This is s—.
I can’t sleep.
What am I doing here?
This is a mistake.
I can’t bear to watch one more film.
I’m going home.
Home.
I just want to go home.
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Izzet smiles when reminded of that extract from his book.
Born in east London and qualifying to play for Turkey through his father, Izzet’s problems at that 2002 World Cup were compounded by the fact that he was unable to string a sentence together in Turkish (something he regrets to this day). The Turkish players made Izzet feel welcome, but his best form of communication was what he could do with the ball – and he was only kicking it in training.
Feeling down, and completely in the dark as to why he was never getting an opportunity in matches, Izzet would often retreat to his room, pull the curtains and put on another movie. He jokes that he watched more films in the space of six weeks that summer than (UK TV’s famed film critic) Barry Norman.
At least there was a happy ending of sorts for him. After being talked out of returning to England mid-tournament, Izzet got an unexpected tap on the shoulder (he hadn’t even tied his boots at the time) during the World Cup semi-final against Brazil.
With 17 minutes of normal time remaining and Turkey trailing 1-0, Izzet was told he was coming on “on the right” — up against the great Roberto Carlos. Turkey were unable to force an equaliser, but Izzet had finally made an appearance at the World Cup finals.
“It was all worth it,” he says. “And I’ve got a shirt to prove it.
“When people talk to me about it – ‘Blimey, you played in a World Cup semi-final’, I think to myself that it is actually quite amazing that I managed to get on and play. At the time, it wasn’t. It was, ‘I’ve only played 19 minutes’. But I can say that I’ve played in a World Cup semi-final, which is mindboggling.”
For many others, there is no silver lining.
Remarkably, a total of 311 outfield players (the number would be significantly higher if goalkeepers were included) went home from the previous four World Cups (2006-2018) without seeing any match action.
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The number of playing “spectators” at this World Cup is likely to be the highest yet, largely because of FIFA’s decision to increase squad sizes from 23 to 26 – something that many suspected would end up being more of a hindrance than a help to the coaches at the tournament as they tried to keep everybody happy.
Gio Reyna’s situation with the U.S. men’s national team feeds into that narrative. Reyna threw his shin pads down in a strop after being left on the bench in the U.S.’s opening World Cup match against Wales. It has since transpired that in training sessions either side of the Wales game, Reyna’s team-mates felt that he showed a lack of effort, culminating in him apologising to the rest of the squad. Ultimately, Reyna ended up getting on the pitch and playing 52 minutes of World Cup football, which is a lot more than some.
Even if the message from within is how “we are all in it together”, the reality is that splits often develop naturally at World Cups.
Warnock, who sounds so upbeat about the whole World Cup experience, admits that the hardest time in South Africa was always the day after a match because “you’re the ones training on your own, and players who haven’t got on – and think they should have got on – are disappointed”.
Luongo nods when that is put to him.
“Unintentionally, a little divide happens, because the boys that are playing are having to recover, and the boys that are training have ‘head loss’. And when we are back, the other ones are trying to recover and get ready for the next game, whereas we know we’re not going to play, so we’re watching films or in the games room playing ping pong, trying to pretend that we’re having a good time. But you’re not. You’re sort of just trying to pass time and get through it.”
Naturally, players will look out for themselves before anyone else. But occasionally someone comes along and breaks the mould.
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Cadamuro tells an anecdote about Bougherra, the former Rangers player, who had started Algeria’s first two games at the 2014 World Cup but was a substitute for that last-16 tie against Germany. The game went to extra time and one of the Algeria players went down injured.
“I was warming up with Madjid, and logically it was either him or me who went on,” Cadamuro, who had not played a minute in Brazil, says. “Our trainer (fitness coach) Cyril Moine came running and told Madjid to come and change. Madjid said to Cyril, ‘I’m not going. Cada is, he deserves to play’. I was shocked and at the same time embarrassed, but also very grateful to Madjid because really – and I told him this – even if he is a big brother for me, I would not have thought of doing what he did.
“Vahid Halilhodzic (the coach) was impatient. Madjid repeated it three times, he got into a power struggle with Cyril and Vahid. I thanked him from the bottom of my heart for his gesture, but I told him to go and that we needed him. He told me, ‘I would have done everything for you to play, Cada, I’m sorry’.”
Some players will be better than others at disguising their real feelings when they have been jettisoned.
Sol Bamba, who played every minute for the Ivory Coast at the 2014 World Cup but never kicked a ball as a member of their squad in the 2010 tournament, put any personal grievances aside in South Africa, even if there was a clear sense of injustice about manager Sven-Goran Eriksson’s decision to leave him out.
“The day before we played Portugal (at the 2010 World Cup), Sven changed the team,” Bamba tells The Athletic. “The team weren’t happy because in the last two years we’d played a certain way, with the same players, so everyone said, ‘Let’s go and see Sven. He can’t do that the day before the game’.
“I was like, ‘No, no. no. Just leave it. Listen, I’m not happy because I want to play, and I’ve been playing regularly for the last couple of years. But it’s the manager’s decision and I’ll stay behind you guys, we’re a team’.
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“Sven said it himself, and a few of the lads in the group, that if it was any other player it would have been carnage. I didn’t say anything. But I was disappointed and upset.
“The last game, against North Korea, I was convinced I would play. So when Sven announced the team and I wasn’t in it, that was one of the times there when I was very low. I didn’t smile that day. It hurt me.”
Ivory Coast’s victory over North Korea was not emphatic enough to go through to the last 16, meaning that Bamba and his team-mates were on the next plane home.
“When I left there I remember having a conversation at the airport with Sven,” Bamba adds. “And that’s when actually he said to me, ‘What I did to you was wrong. I should have kept the same team, blah, blah, blah. Maybe we would have done better’. I just thought at the time he wanted to be nice to me, because he also said that when he got a club he would take me.”
As it happens, Eriksson was true to his word.
He signed Bamba for Leicester six months later. Arguably more importantly for Bamba, he was in the starting line-up for the Ivory Coast at the next World Cup.
“There’s no such thing as a partial world champion.”
That was Kevin Grosskreutz talking in the wake of Germany winning the World Cup in 2014. “We were with the team for six weeks, gave it our all in training and contributed to the atmosphere,” right-back or winger Grosskreutz told German news outlet Bild. “Everyone who was there won the World Cup.”
One of five Germany players (three of them outfielders) to remain on the bench throughout that tournament in Brazil, Grosskreutz resented the suggestion that he was not as entitled to bask in the team’s success as anyone else. Indeed, 13 days after the final, he had the World Cup trophy tattooed on his back. Ridiculed by some, Grosskreutz gave the impression that he couldn’t care less.
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Four years later, it was Adil Rami’s turn.
The former AC Milan, Sevilla and Marseille defender was running around the pitch at the Luzhniki Stadium waving the French flag after Didier Deschamps’ team defeated Croatia 4-2 to win the World Cup final. As with Grosskreutz, Rami never featured in any of their matches in Russia… but he was involved in plenty of action off the field.
“My role is to try to bring positive waves to the team,” Rami said on the eve of the quarter-final against Uruguay – and before it had emerged that, a few days earlier, all the France players and staff had to be evacuated from their hotel because Rami had sprayed his team-mates with a fire extinguisher and set the alarm off.
“It was like Ghostbusters,” Rami said later. “There was smoke everywhere, it was like a shisha. All the security arrived to evacuate the hotel. I thought I was going to be sacked.”
Although Deschamps was not impressed with Rami at the time, a prankster in the camp is a lot better than a sulker whose negative energy can destabilise the whole group. Indeed, a couple of months before that World Cup, Deschamps gave an insight into his thinking around squad selection and said that his aim was “not necessarily to pick the best 23 players”.
“I know very well that some players will deserve to go to the World Cup but they will not be on my list,” the France manager said. “In Russia, some players won’t play or they will just a little. I do not know who yet, but it will be the case anyway. Football qualities are essential, but the social aspect and the team spirit are both also very important.”
Some managers are keener than others to give everyone a taste of the action where possible – a dead rubber in the final group game, or a third-place play-off, can help in that respect.
Indeed, of the four teams to have used every outfield player at this World Cup, three of them (Brazil, France and Portugal – Switzerland are the exception) were able to make multiple changes (25 in total) for their final group game after qualifying for the last 16 with a match to spare. In the case of Brazil, even their second- and third-choice goalkeepers played.
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Germany never had that luxury but their coach Hansi Flick made a late substitution against Costa Rica, in their final group game, with this exact theme in mind. With Germany leading 4-2 and, realistically, never going to win by the margin required to go through to the last 16, Flick brought on Matthias Ginter in injury-time. Ginter had been to the previous two World Cups, including the 2014 tournament that Germany won, and not kicked a ball. An unwanted World Cup hat-trick was avoided in the fourth minute of injury time against Costa Rica.
Pepe Reina went to four World Cups with Spain and played only once, in a final group game against Australia in 2014 after his team had already been eliminated having lost their first two fixtures. A meaningless match for everyone else was a moment to cherish for Reina. “I am delighted and proud to be fulfilling every player’s dream,” he said before the game.
And that, perhaps, is something that is easy to overlook in all of this – that, as cliched as it sounds, playing in a World Cup really is the dream for a professional footballer.
“I don’t think I’ve had that feeling before,” Sol Bamba adds, smiling, as he thinks back to what it felt like to be on the pitch in 2014. “You work all your life for that.”
It also explains why players are so “devastated” – to use Jermaine Jenas’ word – to miss out.
Jenas was part of the England World Cup squad in 2006 and ended up being one of three outfield players – Wayne Bridge and Theo Walcott were the others – to remain on the bench throughout their time in Germany. Actually, that is not strictly true because Jenas was up on his feet at one point.
“It was mad because in the first game I think we were 1-0 up and he (manager Eriksson) called me to say, ‘Right, you’re going on’, and I got changed… and the final whistle went! I was devastated,” Jenas told the BBC. “I wanted to play for England at a World Cup and to grace the pitch for even two minutes at such a big tournament would have been huge.”
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Would two minutes really have been enough though?
Cadamuro gives an interesting response when asked that question.
“The problem is that if I had gone on for two minutes, I would have said, ‘He (the coach) doesn’t respect me’. I say that but in the end, in my situation, I would have taken one second. To defend my country, to get my shirt on, or to be able to sing the national anthem, that would have been unforgettable. It’s that kind of moment that stays with you.”
Although Warnock never got to know what that feels like either, and is among a long list of players who went to a World Cup and never kicked a ball, he doesn’t have a bad word to say about his own experience or Capello.
“He took me to a World Cup – he gave me my dream as a kid,” Warnock adds. “I’m in a Panini sticker album as part of a World Cup squad. I’ve even been part of quiz questions on The Chase!”
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(Tyrell Malacia, James Maddison and Karim Adeyemi played zero minutes in Qatar. Photos: Getty Images/Design: Eamonn Dalton)
