London, May 18 :

FIFA today released the official squad lists for the 32 teams that will play in next month’s World Cup.

Each team registered 23 players for the tournament, making 736 players eligible to play at soccer’s premier event. The deadline for submitting rosters was on Monday, and most of the teams made their squad public on that day. The only change came from Croatia, where Niko Kovac replaced Ivan Buljat.

According to FIFA, 47 per cent of the registered players compete in England, Italy, Spain, France and Germany — the top five leagues in Europe. The English Premier League has 102 players chosen for their respective national teams.

Seven of the competitors will be taking part in their fourth World Cup — Claudio Reyna and Kasey Keller of the US, Oliver Kahn of Germany, Mohammed Al-Deayea and Sami Al-Jaber of Saudi Arabia, and Cafu and Ronaldo of Brazil.

England’s Theo Walcott, 17, will be the youngest player in the World Cup and could become the youngest ever to score if he finds the net. Tunisia goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel, 40, will be fifth oldest player to participate after Roger Milla of Cameroon, Pat Jennings of Northern Ireland, Peter Shilton of England and Dino Zoff of Italy.