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#ANosaHistoria (Our History): Deportivo's 18 World Cup players up to 2014

- Mauro Silva (5) and Bebeto (7) with the Brazilian squad before the 1994 World Cup semi-final against Sweden (Photo: Gerência de Memória e Acervo da CBF) -
Now that the 32 national teams participating in the 2018 Russia World Cup have published their squad, 5 Dépor players will be present in the global event. This number equalises Dépor's record in the same edition, as we had 5 representatives in France 1998.
With Fabian Schär, Michael Krohn-Dehli, Celso Borges, Francis Uzoho and Ismael Diaz’s participation in Russia, Dépor has players taking part in the World Cup after not having any in Brazil 2014.
This summer, Dépor will reach a total of 23 World Cup players in the most important world-wide football event, up until now it had only been 18. The Branquizul players have played/play for the following countries: 7 with Spain, 3 with Morocco, 2 with Brazil and Argentina and 1 with Nigeria, Cameroon, Paraguay and Mexico. Now we can add Switzerland, Denmark, Costa Rica and Panama, whilst the number of Nigerian players equals Brazil.
- Voro (17) with Spain in the match against Bolivia in the ’94 World Cup Group Stage (Photo: © Archivo RFEF) -
STATISTIC SUMMARY OF DEPORTIVO PLAYERS IN THE WORLD CUP (1930-2014)
Player | National team | WC | Final pos. | Matches | Starters | Mins | Goals |
Chacho | Spain | 1934 | 5º | 1 | 1 | 90 | - |
Juan Acuña | Spain | 1950 | 4º | - | - | - | - |
Mauro Silva | Brazil | 1994 | 1º | 7 | 7 | 615 | - |
Bebeto | Brazil | 1994 | 1º | 7 | 7 | 660 | 3 |
Voro | Spain | 1994 | 8º | 1 | 1 | 90 | - |
Peter Rufai | Nigeria | 1998 | 12º | 4 | 4 | 360 | -9 |
Noureddine Naybet | Morocco | 1998 | 18º | 3 | 3 | 270 | - |
Mustapha Hadji | Morocco | 1998 | 18º | 3 | 3 | 270 | 1 |
Salaheddine Bassir | Morocco | 1998 | 18º | 3 | 3 | 270 | 2 |
Jacques Songo'o | Cameroon | 1998 | 25º | 3 | 3 | 270 | -5 |
Enrique Romero | Spain | 2002 | 5º | 3 | 2 | 218 | - |
Sergio Gonzalez | Spain | 2002 | 5º | 1 | - | 37 | - |
Juan Carlos Valeron | Spain | 2002 | 5º | 4 | 4 | 375 | 1 |
Diego Tristan | Spain | 2002 | 5º | 2 | 2 | 113 | - |
Fabricio Coloccini | Argentina | 2006 | 6º | 2 | 1 | 186 | - |
Lionel Scaloni | Argentina | 2006 | 6º | 1 | 1 | 120 | - |
Roberto Acuña | Paraguay | 2006 | 18º | 3 | 3 | 270 | - |
Andres Guardado | Mexico | 2010 | 14º | 3 | 2 | 142 | - |
Post-World Cup signings
Deportivo also signed some players shortly after their participation in the World Cup, always looking towards the next season. A total of 10 players.
Hector Ramon Zelaya from Honduras (1982), Uruguayan Eduardo Mario Acevedo (1986), the Spaniard Julio Salinas and the Bulgarian Emil Kostadinov (1994), the Spaniard Albert Luque, the Portuguese centre-back Jorge Andrade and Paraguayan ‘Toro’ Acuña (2002), Paraguayan Claudio Morel Rodriguez (2010), Bosnian Haris Medunjanin and Celso Borges from Costa Rica (2014).