Qatar 2022: Why is Joao Moutinho not playing for Portugal in the FIFA World Cup?

This is, together with that of Renato Sanches, one of the great surprises in Portugal‘s list of players for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Despite already being a 36-year-old player, he was expected to be part of the Portuguese team that played in the Arab country, however, will not be with the rest of the team. Here we tell you the reasons.

Joao Moutinho is a player with extensive experience not only in club soccer, but also in the Portuguese national team. He has played in the under-17, under-19 and under-21 teams, and of course in the senior team, where he has a record of 126 games played with 7 goals and 26 assists.

He was European Under-17 Champion in 2003 and Euro Cup Champion in 2016. He also participated in the 2006 Under-21 Euro Cup, 2007 Under-21 Euro Cup, 2008 Euro Cup, 2012 Euro Cup, the 2017 Confederations Cup and the World Cups Brazil2014 and Russia 2018. This would have been his third participation in a World Cup, something that finally will not happen.

Why is Joao Moutinho missing the Qatar 2022 World Cup?

The reasons why Joao Moutinho was left out of the final team list are unclear, although Steven Davis, interim coach of Wolverhampton commented: “I haven’t spoken to him about it, he’s very focused on tomorrow’s game plan against Arsenal.”

The coach also added: “He’s very professional and knows that’s important to him. He will surely reflect on not being summoned and will be disappointed with Cristiano’s call at that age. The coach has to think about the balance of the squad. It’s important for any coach, so maybe that influenced the decision.”