Cristiano Ronaldo not included in Juventus’ squad coming to the United States

Whenever it’s a World Cup or European Championship year, that’s always going to make things interesting when it comes to Juventus’ full international contingent reporting for preseason duty in Turin.

That’s once again the case this year — and that was always going to be the case before Cristiano Ronaldo was signed for nine figures earlier this month.

But because Ronaldo is now a Juventus player, the list of players coming to the United States for the International Champions Cup and the MLS All-Star Game was always going to be a little more anticipated.

Sunday brought us that list, and Ronaldo — as well as some of Juve’s other big attacking names — aren’t going to be playing in front of folks in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Atlanta and Washington D.C. in a matter of days. Ronaldo, instead, will return from his post-World Cup vacation and begin training at Juventus Training Center come July 30 just as he said he would when he held his introductory press conference last week.

Here are the 27 players that Max Allegri has called up for the trip over to the U.S., courtesy of Juventus’ official website:

Szczesny

De Sciglio

Chiellini

Benatia

Pjanic

Khedira (To join the squad directly in the United States)

Marchisio

Alex Sandro

Caldara

Barzagli

Perin

Cancelo

Pinsoglio

Can

Rugani

Beruatto

Del Favero

Bernardeschi

Fernandes

Macek

Kastanos

Clemenza

Pereira da Silva

Beltrame

Favilli

Di Pardo

Fagioli

So, obviously there’s no Ronaldo — that’s the big one.

There’s also no Stefano Sturaro, so obviously that will cause people to return their tickets. (Sorry about that, ICC folks.) Sturaro and Leonardo Spinazzola will be staying back in Turin working on their “personalised training programmes.”

Besides Ronaldo, who else won’t be traveling to the United States is noticeable.

• No Paulo Dybala
• No Gonzalo Higuain
• No Mario Mandzukic
• No Rodrigo Bentancur
• No Juan Cuadrado
• No Blaise Matuidi
• No Marko Pjaca
• No Douglas Costa

The good thing is that when Juventus comes back from the United States, pretty much all of those players — as long as they are still Juventus players, of course — will be eagerly awaiting their teammates’ return. We will know when Juve’s Serie A opener will be taking place by then, too, with the fixture list set to be announced next week.

But, no matter who’s going to be on the receiving end of Allegri’s screaming on the sideline come the next couple of weeks in the U.S., we’re just that much closer to Juve’s season actually getting underway. And that, my friends, is a good thing.