• Santos left out PSG’s Sanches and calls up Benfica’s Silva

Cristiano Ronaldo will lead Portugal into World Cup Qatar 2022 after Fernando Santos named the veteran forward in his 26-man squad on Thursday. The Manchester United striker, 37, has not been first choice for his club this season but will be part of his country’s bid to win the tournament for the first time in their history. Ronaldo, the captain and all-time leading goalscorer in men’s international football with 117 strikes, has plenty of younger teammates in support in attack, including Atletico Madrid’s Joao Felix and AC Milan’s Rafael Leao. “All the players I have called up come with the hunger to win and make Portugal world champions, Ronaldo included,” said Santos.
The coach, who led Portugal to Euro 2016 glory in France, left Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Renato Sanches out of the squad, and called up Benfica centre-back Antonio Silva, 19, as well as veteran 39-year-old Pepe. Wolves midfielder Joao Moutinho, 36, has appeared for his country 146 times, more than any other player apart from Ronaldo, was not included, and nor was his teammate Goncalo Guedes.
Portugal open their World Cup campaign in Group H against Ghana on November 24, before facing Uruguay on November 28 and South Korea on December 2.

Squad
Goalkeepers: Diogo Costa (Porto), Rui Patricio (Roma/ITA), Jose Sa (Wolverhampton/ENG)
Defenders: Diogo Dalot (Manchester United/ENG), Joao Cancelo (Manchester City/ENG), Danilo Pereira (Paris Saint-Germain/FRA), Pepe (Porto), Ruben Dias (Manchester City/ENG), Antonio Silva (Benfica), Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain/FRA), Raphael Guerreiro (Borussia Dortmund/GER)
Midfielders: Ruben Neves (Wolverhampton/ENG), Joao Palhinha (Fulham/ENG), William Carvalho (Real Betis/ESP), Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United/ENG), Vitinha (Paris Saint-Germain/FRA), Otavio (Porto), Joao Mario (Benfica), Matheus Nunes (Wolverhampton/ENG), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City/ENG)
Forwards: Rafael Leao (AC Milan/ITA), Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid/ESP), Ricardo Horta (Braga), Goncalo Ramos (Benfica), Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United/ENG), Andre Silva (RB Leipzig/GER)

Lewandowski to captain Poland
Robert Lewandowski will lead Poland’s World Cup campaign with Barcelona’s goalscoring machine among the 26-man squad for Qatar named by coach Czeslaw Michniewicz yesterday. The selection process was “the most important decision of my life” Michniewicz said, revealing he had run his picks past Lewandowski.
“None of the 26 are going there for the atmosphere,” he added. “Each one is at such a level and such an ability that I can count on them at any time.”
A lot will be counting on Lewandowski with Poland in a group containing Lionel Messi’s Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Mexico against whom they open their campaign on November 22. Michniewicz said nothing had changed in terms of Wojciech Szczesny of Juventus being his number one choice as keeper. He is among 11 of the squad based in Italy.
The one area where the coach conceded there was an issue was in midfield, which led to a call up for AEK Athens’ Damian Szymanski. “Damian has been playing great recently and his team are second (in the Greek Super League). I won’t hide that I spent a long time talking about it with Robert. I put forward my reasoning out of respect for the captain, this great player.”
Lewandowski has yet to make his mark at a World Cup, and remains undoubtedly the key to Poland’s destiny. The 34-year-old scored nine times in as many outings as Poland punched their ticket to Qatar, taking his haul to 25 goals in 19 games across the last two World Cup qualifying campaigns.
Poland qualified for the World Cup by beating Sweden in a playoff in March. Their mission is to erase the memory of their tame group stage departure in 2018, with 1986 the last time they made it into the knockout phase.

Squad
Goalkeepers: Wojciech Szczesny (Juventus/ITA), Lukasz Skorupski (Bologna/ITA), Bartlomiej Dragowski (Spezia/ITA)
Defenders: Matty Cash (Aston Villa/ENG), Robert Gumny (Augsburg/GER), Bartosz Bereszynski (Sampdoria/ITA), Kamil Glik (Benevento/ITA), Jan Bednarek (Aston Villa/ENG), Jakub Kiwior (Spezia/ITA), Mateusz Wieteska (Clermont/FRA), Artur Jedrzejczyk (Legia Warsaw), Nicola Zalewski (Roma/ITA)
Midfielders: Grzegorz Krychowiak (Al-Shabab/KSA), Krystian Bielik (Birmingham City/ENG), Damian Szymanski (AEK Athens/GRE), Piotr Zielinski (Napoli/ITA), Sebastian Szymanski (Feyenoord/NED), Szymon Zurkowski (Fiorentina/ITA), Jakub Kaminski (Wolfsburg/GER), Przemyslaw Frankowski (Lens/FRA), Kamil Grosicki (Pogon Szczecin), Michal Skoras (Lech Poznan)
Forwards: Robert Lewandowski (Barcelona/ESP), Karol Swiderski (Charlotte FC/USA), Arkadiusz Milik (Juventus/ITA), Krzysztof Piatek (Salernitana/ITA)