In a statement, the Angolan Football Federation said that the athlete, who was the star player at the last African Football Cup of Nations, in Côte d'Ivoire, did not answer phone calls after the call-up was announced.
In May, the press had reported that the player Gilberto had been suspended at Petro de Luanda, his current club, for the same reason, fueling the controversy over his possible involvement in night parties, but Petro's Portuguese coach, Alexandre Santos denied the information, claiming injury.
As for the national team, Pedro Gonçalves had called up 28 players for the double qualifying match for the Football World Cup, which will take place in 2026 in the United States, Canada and Mexico, against their counterparts in Eswatine and Cameroon, on the 7th and June 11th.
Group D is led by Cameroon, with four points, followed by Cape Verde, second, with the same points, Libya, third, also with four points, while Angola is fourth, with two, Mauritius, fifth, with one, and Eswatine occupies last place, without scoring.
Summoned:
- Goalkeepers: Neblú (1.º de Agosto), António Dominique (Etoile Carouge, Switzerland) and Langanga (Sagrada Esperança);
- Defenses: Jonathan Buatu (Gil Vicente, Portugal), Clinton Mata (Lyon, France), David Carmo (Olympiacos, Greece), Eddie Afonso (Petro de Luanda), Jonas Ramalho (Al-Ahli Manama, Bahrain), Jordi Gaspar (Pau FC, France), Gaspar (Estrela da Amadora, Portugal), Nurio Fortuna (KAA Gent, Belgium) and Sandro Cruz (Desportivo de Chaves, Portugal).
- Midfielders: Freddy (Eyupspor, Turkey), Maestro (Adana Demirspor, Turkey), Domingos Andrade (Felgueiras, Portugal), Show (Maccabi Haifa, Israel), Marco Silva (União de Leiria, Portugal) Megue (Petro de Luanda) and Star (Erzurumspor, Turkey).
- Forwards: Mabululu (Al-Ittihad, Egypt), Milson (Maccabi Tel Aviv, Israel), Gelson Dala (Al-Wakrah, Qatar), Depú (Gil Vicente, Portugal), Lucas João (Umm-Salal, Qatar), Manuel Benson (Burnley, England), Randy Nteka (Rayo Vallecano, Spain) and Zito Luvumbo (Cagliari, Italy).
