Del Bosque Justifies Raúl Exclusion

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque, who confirmed his selection for the national side’s World Cup qualifying games, has explained his decision to once again omit Raúl.

Vicente del Bosque announced his squad list for Spain’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Bosnia and Armenia and, not for the first time, there is a familiar name missing.

Real Madrid captain and icon, Raúl has once again been left out following his omission from the friendly against Denmark last week. Although there’s less fuss in the media this time around, del Bosque still had to explain his selection process.

“He is left out for sporting reasons. There is no other explanation to give other than that,” he said during a press conference.

“We only take the best players based on their form and we do not consider other factors not related to football,” emphasized del Bosque.

The 57 year old also explained his decision to exclude young Bojan Krkic.

“Bojan has played with Spain’s under-age selection for at least 30 games, but he can still choose if he wants to play with Spain or Serbia."

“That situation would not have been affected even if he had played in the friendly against Denmark,” the coach elaborated.

While del Bosque’s omission of Bojan would have given the player some time to think over which national team to play for, the recently-turned 18 year old has since gone to pledge his allegiance to La Furia Roja.