Oscar? Or David Luiz? One of the current Brazil team I reckon.
No, its not a member of the current Brazil team.
West Germany played seven matches in the 1974 World Cup and six in the 1978 World Cup, neither of which they had to qualify for, so Iāll guess itās a player on that team.
Rainer Bonhof.
I was just thinking as hosts they didnāt play any qualifying games.
Thatās a very good one. Iād guess a French player from the 1998/2002 teams.
Youāre thinking along the right lines, but this playerās international career straddles more than one World Cup.
No on both counts.
Frank Lebouef?
Not a player off the France 1998/2002 teams.
It has to be Giuseppe Bergomi.
Brought into the Italy team as a youngster for the 1982 finals.
Italy did not have to qualify in 1986 or 1990.
Fell out of favour for the 1994 qualifying campaign and finals.
Recalled shortly before the 1998 finals.
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Correct. Played in 16 finals games but never featured in a qualifier.
Just thinking about that question again there, I reckon thereās another man who has possibly played in 14 finals games but never featured in a qualifier. Not entirely certain about him in qualifiers. Must look into it later when I get a chance.
Is there anyone on the Brazil 58-62-66 teams who might qualify for this?
Defender Orlando de Carvalho perhaps.
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Brazil would have had to qualify in 1958 & 1970 but not in 1962 or 66. The fellow I have in mind with 14 World Cup Final appearances and none in the qualifiers is not a Brazilian.
Iāll see if I can use logic here.
14 appearances means two full tournaments since 1974 (when 7 games became the maximum a team could play in one tournament), so that would indicate that the player is from a team who reached two final matches or a third and fourth place play-off in a row. Thus the player would have played two full consecutive finals tournaments.
Such teams are: Holland (1974/1978), Italy (1978/1982), France (1982/1986), Germany (1982/1986/1990), Argentina (1986/1990), Italy (1990/1994), Brazil (1994/1998/2002), Germany (2002/2006/2010/2014) and Holland (2010/2014).
Ruling out Brazil, I feel the player is likely to come from a team which qualified automatically for one of the tournaments. Argentina 1986/1990, Italy 1990/1994 and Germany 2002-2014 all fit this bill.
Iām guessing itās a player who was brought into a team shortly before the first finals tournament, missing the qualifiers. This player would also likely have played the whole of the next tournament which his country automatically qualified for.
This leads me to believe itās a player on either the 1986/1990 Argentina team or the 2002/2006 Germany team.
I donāt think itās an Argentina player, so it has to be Germany.
Metzelder?
Youāre reasonably warm but not there. It was 14 finals game over two tournaments and it is one of the nine permutations you mentioned. I know for sure he didnāt feature in one of the qualifying campaigns, I reckon he didnāt feature at all in the other qualifying campaign either but havenāt bottomed out on that yet.
By my reckoning, Christoph Metzelder fits the bill perfectly.
Made his debut for Germany in a friendly in August 2001, but did not feature in any of the subsequent World Cup qualifiers against England, Finland or the Ukraine.
Started all seven of Germanyās matches at the 2002 finals.
Germany qualified automatically in 2006.
Started all seven of Germanyās matches in 2006.
His last cap was the Euro 2008 final against Spain.
Edit: Balls. He didnāt play in the third group match in 2006 against Ecuador.
But still, 13 World Cup appearances, all in the finals.
Who is the only player to have a Champions League and Copa America winners medal but has never won a league title on either continent?