Former World Cup winner Ronaldinho heads a long list of stars who have missed out on selection for the 2010 tournament.
The 32 preliminary squads for South Africa provided a host of surprises, with Ronaldinho among several high-profile omissions by Brazilian coach Dunga.
His AC Milan team-mate Alexandre Pato, an exciting 20-year-old who is one of Serie A's brightest talents, was also ignored, as was Adriano, a regular in Germany four years ago but deemed too unprofessional by Dunga.
Argentina coach Diego Maradona also raised some eyebrows by leaving out Inter Milan pair Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti, unquestionably two of the best players from this season's Champions League.
Holders Italy will be without a number of high-profile flair players. Coach Marcello Lippi's pragmatic squad had no place for 2006 stars Francesco Totti and Alessandro Del Piero, with Antonio Cassano and Fabrizio Miccoli also snubbed.
France coach Raymond Domenech is used to courting controversy, having previously left out Robert Pires because of his star sign. This time the tarot cards have told Domenech to leave veteran midfielder Patrick Vieira at home, along with Arsenal's Samir Nasri, former Gunner Mathieu Flamini, Real Madrid's Karim Benzema and Everton striker Louis Saha.
Saha's club-mate Mikel Arteta finds himself on the outside looking in thanks to the wealth of midfield talent at Spain's disposal.
Ruud van Nistelrooy's run of form for Hamburg came too late to earn the veteran striker a place in Bert van Marwijk's Netherlands squad. Another in-form striker, Germany's Kevin Kuranyi, also failed to land a seat on the plane to South Africa.
England coach Fabio Capello might have brought Ledley King and Jamie Carragher back, but there was no place for either Gary Neville or Owen Hargreaves in his 30-man selection.
Further afield, USA coach Bob Bradley sprung a couple of surprises by omitting forwards Charlie Davies and Freddy Adu.
Cameroon coach Paul Le Guen axed Stephane Mbia and Andre Bikey, while Shinji Kagawa and Cristian Gonzalez were surprisingly left out by Japan and Uruguay respectively.
