BUENOS AIRES (AP) — Ar­genti­na is tak­ing nine de­fend­ers, sev­en mid­field­ers and sev­en for­wards to the World Cup in Qatar as coach Li­onel Scaloni’s team aims to build on its Co­pa Amer­i­ca suc­cess.

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Scaloni an­nounced his 26-play­er squad — which con­tains two few­er for­wards than the ros­ter for tra­di­tion­al ri­val Brazil — in a video on Fri­day. He is sched­uled to speak about his choic­es Mon­day.

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The 35-year-old Mes­si, who will play his fifth and like­ly last World Cup, is joined by oth­er vet­er­ans in­clud­ing strik­er Án­gel Di María (34), de­fend­er Nicolás Ota­men­di (34) and goal­keep­er Fran­co Ar­mani (36)

Ar­genti­na has al­so re­ju­ve­nat­ed the team since the 2018 World Cup by in­clud­ing for­ward Lau­taro Martínez, and mid­field­er En­zo Fer­nán­dez af­ter on­ly a cou­ple of games for the na­tion­al team. Fer­nán­dez has quick­ly ada­p­at­ed to Eu­ro­pean soc­cer in his first sea­son with Ben­fi­ca

Ro­dri­go de Paul, who will have the ex­tra bur­den of pro­tect­ing Mes­si, said on In­sta­gram his dream of play­ing a World Cup had come true

“I can’t de­scribe what one feels in be­ing able to rep­re­sent his coun­try in a World Cup,” he said. “But I can say that we will leave our souls for every Ar­gen­tin­ian to be proud of how we hold our flag.”

Man­ches­ter City strik­er Julián Ál­varez was al­so cho­sen but Scaloni left out Atleti­co Madrid’s Án­gel Cor­rea and Napoli’s Gio­van­ni Sime­one, for­wards who have had a good start to the sea­son in Eu­rope

Mid­field­er Gio­vani Lo Cel­so sus­tained a ham­string in­jury at the end of last month that ruled him out of the tour­na­ment. How­ev­er, strik­er Paulo Dy­bala, who suf­fered a mus­cle in­jury in his left leg on Oc­to­ber 9, man­aged to re­turn in time for the squad

Ar­genti­na opens in Qatar against Sau­di Ara­bia on No­vem­ber 22. Mex­i­co and Poland are al­so in Group C

Ar­genti­na:

Goal­keep­ers: Emil­iano Martínez (As­ton Vil­la), Gerón­i­mo Rul­li (Vil­lar­real), Fran­co Ar­mani (Riv­er Plate)

De­fend­ers: Nahuel Moli­na (Atleti­co Madrid), Gon­za­lo Mon­tiel (Sevil­la), Mar­cos Acuña (Sevil­la), Cris­t­ian Romero (Tot­ten­ham), Ger­mán Pezzel­la (Re­al Betis), Nicolás Ota­men­di (Ben­fi­ca), Lisan­dro Martínez (Man­ches­ter Unit­ed), Nicolás Tagli­afi­co (Ly­on), Juan Foyth (Vil­lar­real)

Mid­field­ers: Ro­dri­go De Paul (Atleti­co Madrid), Le­an­dro Pare­des (Ju­ven­tus), Alex­is Mac Al­lis­ter (Brighton), Gui­do Ro­dríguez (Re­al Betis), Papu Gómez (Sevil­la), En­zo Fer­nán­dez (Ben­fi­ca), Ex­e­quiel Pala­cios (Bay­er Lev­erkusen)

For­wards: Án­gel Di María (Ju­ven­tus), Lau­taro Martínez, Joaquín Cor­rea (both In­ter Mi­lan), Julián Ál­varez (Man­ches­ter City), Paulo Dy­bala (Ro­ma), Nicolás González (Fiorenti­na), Li­onel Mes­si (Paris Saint-Ger­main)