On June 14, Argentine giants Boca Juniors will compete in the Club World Cup this month, but the team's defense line has received bad news - main defender Elton Costa was rejected for a visa and is confirmed to miss the competition in the United States.

Costa, 25 , was unable to obtain a U.S. entry visa because he had a criminal record in his native Argentina. According to Reuters, Costa was involved in a serious robbery case in 2018 and was sentenced to probation by the court in 2023. U.S. immigration officials believed that he was still serving his sentence, so they rejected his entry application in accordance with relevant laws. According to U.S. law, people with criminal convictions are generally not allowed to enter the United States.

A spokesperson for Boca Juniors confirmed the news and said: " We can confirm that Elton Costa will miss the Club World Cup. He was originally scheduled to travel with the team on the evening of June 11 (Wednesday), but was unable to do so due to visa issues. " However, the club did not publicly explain in detail the specific reasons for the rejection of his visa.

Costa's absence will undoubtedly bring challenges to Boca Juniors' defensive deployment, especially in such a high-intensity event as the Club World Cup. According to the schedule, Boca Juniors will play against Portuguese powerhouse Benfica in the first round of Group C at 6:00 a.m. Singapore time on June 17 (Tuesday) . The other two teams in Group C are German champion Bayern Munich and Oceania champion, New Zealand amateur team Auckland City.

Boca Juniors is one of the six teams representing South America in this Club World Cup. The integrity of the pre-match lineup is one of the key factors for the team to win the championship. Now the loss of a main player in the back line will have an impact on the overall tactics and rotation arrangements.

At present, Boca Juniors has not announced whether it will appeal the visa rejection or arrange for a replacement player to be added to the list. Fans and the media will also pay close attention to whether this incident will have a deeper impact on the team's participation in the Club World Cup.