Qatar 2022: Rob Page Announces his Squad
Big decisions were made with Wales's first world cup team since 1958
It’s official. Rob Page has announced which 26 players will be joining him in Qatar.
The team is a real mix of Welsh football veterans and new blood who will be carrying Wales into future tournaments.
It’ll surprise no one that both Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey will be on that plane. Between them they have scored 60 goals for Wales in their international careers lasting over a decade.
Swansea City’s Joe Allen will also be joining the squad. Allen hasn’t played since September due to injury, but manager Rob Page said he had to be there thanks to everything he has contributed to the team, even if he doesn’t play in the group stages.
Some of the newer players making their world cup debut include 23-year-old Mark Harris. He made his first Wales appearance in their 5-1 victory against Belarus in November 2021. Another fresh face flying to Qatar is Sorba Thomas. The Huddersfield Town winger played his first game for Cymru against the Czech Republic in September 2021.
The squad announcement was made in front of a few hundred fans at Tylorstown Welfare Hall in the Rhondda valley. Rob Page grew up in Tylorstown and wanted to keep the routes of Welsh football at the heart of the announcement.
The money made from the ticket sales for the announcement will go towards helping to repair flood damage to the Welfare Hall, putting the money back into the community. Rob Page says he still has family in the town.
Wales’s first match at the World Cup will be on the 21st of November against the USA. The Americans also had their squad announcement today, but this time at the top of the Empire State Building in New York. This difference outlines just how close Rob Page wants to keep the red wall to the heart of the Welsh team.
‘Without the red wall, we wouldn’t have made it to the world cup’ he says.
The team in full:
Wayne Hennessy
Danny Ward
Adam Davies
Ben Davies
Ben Cabango
Tom Lockyer
Joe Rodon
Chris Mepham
Ethan Ampadu
Chris Gunter
Neco Williams
Connor Roberts
Sorba Thomas
Joe Allen
Matthew Smith
Dylan Levitt
Harry Wilson
Joe Morrell
Johnny Williams
Aaron Ramsey
Rubin Colwill
Gareth Bale
Kieffer Moore
Mark Harris
Brennan Johnson
Dan James