Venezuela will play against Ecuador in the first match of Group B of Copa America 2024. La Vinotinto will seek to reach the podium and improve upon their fourth-place finish, their highest achievement in the competition, obtained in 2011.
To achieve this goal, the Argentine coach Fernando Batista announced the players who will be part of Venezuela’s squad for the Copa America but with the major absence of the experienced striker Josef Martinez.
Montreal’s Impact striker has been a key player in recent times for Venezuela with a total of 66 games played where he had scored 14 goals and provided 3 assists. Many people may be wondering why this player is off the roster.
Josef Martinez out of Copa America 2024
The reason why Josef Martínez is not part of Venezuela’s national team is because he suffered an injury in the training session with Montreal Impact that kept him away for 10 weeks.
Although the player did his best to arrive on time, he was unable to make it and will have to watch the Copa America 2024 from home.
In his place, Fernando Batista decided to give a chance to strikers Eric Ramirez from Atletico Nacional (Colombia) and Jhonder Cadiz from Famalicao (Portugal).
