Carvajal and Morata Cut: De la Fuente's Spain Preliminary World Cup Squad Reflects a Barcelona-Led Generation Shift
Luis de la Fuente has submitted Spain's preliminary World Cup list to FIFA and published 42 names. Real Madrid veterans Daniel Carvajal and Álvaro Morata are out. Barcelona supply 10 of the named players. Nico Williams, Mikel Merino, Lamine Yamal and Rodri are on an injury watch with medical reports due May 25.
S pain head coach Luis de la Fuente has submitted the Spanish federation's preliminary squad to FIFA ahead of the May 11 longlist deadline and the RFEF has published 42 of the names. The two most-discussed omissions are Daniel Carvajal of Real Madrid and Álvaro Morata of Como, both 34 and both long-standing fixtures of recent La Roja cycles. The final 26-man roster must be in by June 1 and is expected to be confirmed by FIFA on June 2.
Carvajal's form has been the headline-grabbing case. The right-back made only 20 appearances in all competitions for Real Madrid this season, the second-lowest total of his 13 years at the club, and his most visible contributions were the disciplinary incidents and bookings that followed his clashes with officials. De la Fuente, who has rebuilt the back-line around Pedro Porro and Marcos Llorente at right-back, has not given him a route back.
Morata's case is statistical. The forward played regularly for Como in Serie A but had not scored a league goal at the time the list closed, his lowest return at this stage of a season since 2012. De la Fuente has used Mikel Oyarzabal as his reference 9 and topped up with Borja Iglesias and youth-pathway options, leaving Morata outside the picture for the first major tournament in years.
The most striking pattern in the published list is Barcelona's footprint. Joan García, Eric García, Pau Cubarsí, Gerard Martín, Gavi, Pedri, Dani Olmo, Lamine Yamal, Ferran Torres and Fermín López give the Catalan club 10 players in the pool, the largest single-club contingent. The bulk of those names are expected to survive the cut to 25 or 26 when the final list is published in roughly two weeks.
Real Madrid's presence is unusually thin. Dean Huijsen is one of the few players from the Bernabéu squad in the list, with Raúl Asencio and Álvaro Carreras among the candidates left out. De la Fuente has gone wider in the longlist phase to give himself genuine optionality, calling in Villarreal forward Alberto Moleiro, Sporting Braga's Víctor Gómez, Como midfielder Jesús Rodríguez and Rayo Vallecano's Jorge de Frutos.
Four players sit on the injury watch the federation will resolve closer to the deadline. Nico Williams, Mikel Merino, Lamine Yamal and Rodri are all carrying issues of differing severity. De la Fuente has set May 25 as the date he will review the medical reports before deciding which of the four travel and which are replaced. With Rodri the most load-bearing pivot in the side, his case is the one that will most directly shape Spain's starting shape for the opener.