Erratic Maradona Confirms Bizarre Inital Roster For World Cup

While the French may have a right to complain about Raymond Domenech's often senseless call-ups for Les Bleus, Maradona has once again shown why he is perhaps the strangest and, some would say, idiotic coaches in the world.

In the build-up to the World Cup, the former Argentine legend made history by calling up over 100 players in his short term as manager. He also created a controversial national selection of local players that almost lost to Jamaica at home, and faced other weak sides such as Haiti and Costa Rica.

Nevertheless, many in Argentina and abroad had hopes that Maradona would come to his senses in light of this summer's World Cup and present a strong list of players to claim the nation's first tournament victory in over twenty years.

As always, however, Maradona did not fail to disappoint.

Among the notable absentee's to his list are Inter player's Javier Zanetti and Esteban Cambiasso, arguably two of the best defensive players in the world and essential to the Italian sides reaching of this year's UEFA Champions League Final. In addition, Maradona overlooked other European stars such as Pablo Aimar, one of the few natural playmakers able to slide into Juan Roman Riquelme's past role for the the Albicelestes, in-form Barcelona defender Gabriel Milito, Lucho Gonzalez, Fernando Gago, and French Ligue 1 Player of the Year Lisandro Lopez.

If it was the Argentine legend's intention that he make La Selección look as defeatable as possible in South Africa. He certainly achieved it by calling up veteran Juan Sebastian Veron and nine other rarely tested players from the country's ever-weakening Primera Division.

Below is the provisional 30-man squad for the World Cup.

Goalkeepers:

Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar), Mariano Andujar (Catania), Diego Pozo (Colon)

Defenders:

Nicolas Otamendi (Velez Sarsfield), Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich), Walter Samuel (Inter Milan), Gabriel Heinze (Marseille), Nicolas Burdisso (AS Roma), Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle), Ariel Garce (Colon), Juan Insaurralde (Newell's Old Boys), Clemente Rodriguez (Estudiantes)

Midfielders:

Jonas Gutierrez (Newcastle), Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes), Jose Sosa (Estudiantes), Javier Mascherano (Liverpool), Angel Di Maria (Benfica), Javier Pastore (Palermo), Sebastian Blanco (Lanus), Maxi Rodriguez (Liverpool), Juan Mercier (Argentinos), Jesus Datolo (Olimpiakos), Mario Bolatti (Fiorentina)

Forwards:

Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid), Carlos Tevez (Manchester City), Diego Milito (Inter Milan), Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid), Martin Palermo (Boca Juniors), Ezequiel Lavezzi (Napoli)