When you look back at all of the incredible football players that have turned out for their international teams, it’s often that some equally good, if not better exponents have been overlooked.
Injuries, victims of circumstance, not liked by their national team coaches; there are a plethora of reasons why some players have not had the honour to represent their nation.
Below we take a look at five players who have never earned a single cap.
Steve Bruce
Steve is a Manchester United legend, who represented the Red Devils for nine successful seasons, and captained the club for two years until his departure in 1996. An absolute rock in the center of defense, Bruce won plenty admirers.
However, while his defensive partner would go on to represent England on 22 occasions, Bruce was shockingly never called up to the national team.
Mikel Arteta
Despite being an integral part for Everton and Arsenal, Arteta was never deemed good enough for Spain and went his whole career without getting capped.
Admittedly, Arteta played in an era when Spain had a number of quality midfielders, but it's strange all the same to think that someone who made over 300 appearances for Everton and Arsenal was never included.
"Laporte is not selected but he will be selected. It’s difficult to find a better left central defender than him in the world," said Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola in October, after the stopper was once again overlooked for the France national team.
There can't be many £57m players without a senior international cap, never mind one in the form of their life under arguably the greatest coach in the world, in possibly the finest team playing currently. Yet that’s the fate of Laporte, who continues to watch as Adil Rami gets the nod ahead of him for Les Bleus.
Paolo Di Canio
Surely the best player to have ever come out of Italy not to have pulled on the Azzurri shirt.
With all the controversy and scandal surrounding di Canio, many people don't realise that, despite his ability as a player, he was in fact never capped for Italy.
Di Canio enjoyed arguably his best spell in football with West Ham between 1999 and 2003, but he would perhaps have stood more of a chance of being picked for Italy had he experienced the same sort of success in Serie A.
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Similar to Arteta case, Atletico Madrid’s Gabi Fernandez happened to find his path to the Spanish senior side blocked by arguably the greatest La Roja midfield unit of all time.
Captain of the Rojiblancos for their La Liga title triumph, two Champions League finals, their Copa del Rey win in 2013 and their Europa League triumph, Gabi was the eyes and ears of Diego Simeone on the pitch.
A tireless workaholic and a combative and consistent performer on the biggest of European stages, it’s truly a shame that a player of such quality was never able to get a single minute on the pitch for Spain.
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