Our Internationals 25/26

[davieG]

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/inside-king-power-stadium-leicester-10218960

 

By

Jordan Blackwell

 

Coulibaly set for Afcon call?
City right-back Woyo Coulibaly has been handed his first call-up to the Mali squad for their friendly against Democratic Republic of Congo next week, on Thursday, June 5.

The 26-year-old was born and grew up in France but had Mali citizenship and could now represent the nation for the first time.

If he impresses, it could pave the way for him to feature at the Africa Cup of Nations, starting this December and running for a month, and so missing a chunk of City’s season.

As things stand, there are four players in the City squad who could be at the tournament: Coulibaly with Mali, Bilal El Khannouss with hosts Morocco, Wilfred Ndidi with Nigeria, and Patson Daka with Zambia. But how many of those will be with the club come December is another matter.

Ghana failed to qualify for the tournament, and so City won’t lose either Abdul Fatawu or Jordan Ayew, who are both more likely to remain with the club.

[davieG]

OS

Foxes Around The Globe – Upcoming International Action
One of two Foxes with the Danish squad.

by Sam Jones
Published
28 May, 2025
 

Several City players could compete in FIFA World Cup qualifiers, tournaments and friendlies over the course of the next two weeks.
Jordan Ayew, Wilfred Ndidi, Patson Daka, Woyo Coulibaly and Bilal El Khannouss among those competing for their respective nations
Wout Faes, Jannik Vestergaard and Kasey McAteer to feature in Europe
Hamza Choudhury (Bangladesh) and Brandon Cover (Jamaica) have also been called up
Louis Page represented England Under-17s in the UEFA European U17 Championships this week
Down in the capital, Jordan Ayew is set to come up against Wilfred Ndidi when Ghana face Nigeria at Brentford’s Gtech Community Stadium in the Unity Cup on Wednesday evening (7pm kick-off). Ndidi could then be in action again in a friendly against Russia, flying out to Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow on Friday 6 June (6pm kick-off).
Under-21s star Brandon Cover has been called up for the second time to play for Jamaica against Trinidad & Tobago in the same tournament - a 7pm kick-off in west London on Tuesday night.
It’s then a busy June for the Reggae Boyz, playing two FIFA World Cup second round qualifiers against British Virgin Islands and Guatemala, before a trio of CONCACAF Gold Cup group stage matches versus Guatemala, Guadeloupe and Panama.
 

Two games to come for El Khannouss.
Bilal El Khannouss, meanwhile, may feature in Morocco’s back-to-back friendlies at Fez Stadium, starting by hosting Tunisia on Friday 6 June, prior to tackling Benin three days later (both 9pm kick-offs).
There’s also friendly action for Zambia, with Patson Daka in line for minutes against Tunisia on Tuesday 10 June and Woyo Coulibaly's Mali, who face DR Congo at Stade de la Source in France on Thursday 5 June.
Collecting one point from their opening Group C fixture, Hamza Choudhury’s Bangladesh have an Asian Cup Qualification Play-Off against Singapore coming up on 10 June (11am kick-off) as they bid to reach the tournament finals.
Heading back into Europe, there are FIFA World Cup Qualifiers for Wout Faes and Belgium, travelling to Toše Proeski Arena for a meeting with North Macedonia on Friday 6 June, before hosting Wales at King Baudouin Stadium on Monday 9 June (both 7:45pm kick-offs), kicking off their Group J campaign.
 

McAteer made his international debut against England last year.
Elsewhere, Jannik Vestergaard is in the Denmark squad facing Northern Ireland at Parken Stadium on Saturday 7 June and Lithuania at Nature Energy Park three days later (both 6pm kick-offs).
Republic of Ireland have a duo of friendlies too, with Kasey McAteer included in the squad to play Senegal at Aviva Stadium on Friday 6 June and travel to Luxembourg four days later (both 7:45pm kick-offs).
Development Squad forward Chris Popov is back with the Wales Under-21s squad and hoping to win his 13th youth cap as they take on Norway on Friday 6 June.
And fellow Under-21s star Louis Page has been representing England Under-17s in the UEFA European U17 Championships over the course of the last two weeks. 
.

 

[Ryy]

 

[FoxinNotts]

Woyo Coulibaly starts tonight for Mali against DR Congo.

 

Good on him. Another capped fullback for our squad 

[Ryy]

 

[Trav Le Bleu]

8 minutes ago, Ryy said:

 

I always thought Ben Hammond was a mountain.

[Finnegan]

32 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I always thought Ben Hammond was a mountain.

 

He's Welsh, not Scottish 

 

[Trav Le Bleu]

19 minutes ago, Finnegan said:

 

He's Welsh, not Scottish 

 

What about Elvis?

[FoxesTez]

Goal for Kasey. Chuffed for him. 

[moore_94]

Well in Kasey

 

 

[Claudio Fannieri]

Love it, I can honestly see Kasey being similar to Marc Albrighton, not the most technically gifted but a real effective player who becomes a real crowd favourite, made up for him he really is one of our own and seems to want to run through a brick wall for our club. 

[dmayne7]

34 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

Love it, I can honestly see Kasey being similar to Marc Albrighton, not the most technically gifted but a real effective player who becomes a real crowd favourite, made up for him he really is one of our own and seems to want to run through a brick wall for our club. 

Great to see him score and a really well taken goal with that reaction. Seems like a great kid but can't see him getting close to the level Albrighton is at. Marc was a very exciting young player for Villa who then needed a bit of a reset. Kasey has come nowhere near the level Albrighton was at a similar age.

 

He looked better in the last few games as he's got a really good knack for finding good positions but the pace of the game looked way beyond him at times, to a degree that I've never seen of a player in a Leicester shirt. Think his game intelligence and hard work will allow him a good career but would be very surprised if that's at the top level.

[foxfanazer]

47 minutes ago, Claudio Fannieri said:

Love it, I can honestly see Kasey being similar to Marc Albrighton, not the most technically gifted but a real effective player who becomes a real crowd favourite, made up for him he really is one of our own and seems to want to run through a brick wall for our club. 

That's a serious underappreciation of Albrighton's talent. As much as I like Kasey and hope he goes on to do well if he has half of the career Albrighton's had he'll have done extremely well

[mr k]

1 hour ago, moore_94 said:

Well in Kasey

 

 

New striker?

He does score goals?

[Uncle Monty]

1 hour ago, moore_94 said:

Well in Kasey

 

 

What a save from the initial header.

[Gamble92]

Mcateer is a prime example of how much a player can progress when he's thrown in and given that chance. No one would have said that lad with 1 in 18 for Wimbledon mainly at wing back should be out starting winger for the first Championship match.

 

Okay he hasn't gone on to show he is going to be Premier League quality, and the jury is even out on Championship at times. 

 

But if he wasn't thrown in then he would likely have been League One or Two at best right now. Massive what it can do to give them a chance at the right time.

 

You can easily end up being set back years by the way we treat some of our younger players. 

[moore_94]

 

[LCFCCKEANO]

2 hours ago, dmayne7 said:

Great to see him score and a really well taken goal with that reaction. Seems like a great kid but can't see him getting close to the level Albrighton is at. Marc was a very exciting young player for Villa who then needed a bit of a reset. Kasey has come nowhere near the level Albrighton was at a similar age.

 

He looked better in the last few games as he's got a really good knack for finding good positions but the pace of the game looked way beyond him at times, to a degree that I've never seen of a player in a Leicester shirt. Think his game intelligence and hard work will allow him a good career but would be very surprised if that's at the top level.

Think he’d do best as a wingback in a 3 at the back formation, never seems to tire and is big enough to hold his own

[Pliskin]

6”4 McAteer does it again!  

[davieG]

OS

 

Our Academy graduate, Kasey McAteer, scored his first goal for the Republic of Ireland on his maiden start as they drew with Senegal in an international friendly on Friday.
Kasey McAteer scored his first international goal for the Republic of Ireland
Wout Faes completed 90 minutes for Belgium in their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier
Bilal El Khannouss started for Morocco in their 2-0 win over Tunisia
Chris Popov played for Wales Under-21s against Norway Under-21s
McAteer, who netted his first Premier League goal for us last month, was this time on the scoresheet for Heimir Hallgrímsson’s side at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
It took only 21 minutes for the Foxes winger to find the back of the net, converting at the second time of asking, before Crystal Palace forward Ismaïla Sarr levelled late on.
Meanwhile, Wout Faes was a starter for the Red Devils away to North Macedonia as they began their 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign in Group J at the National Arena Toshe Proeski in Skopje.
The hosts had already collected four points from their opening two games but were behind when Faes’ side went ahead through Maxim De Cuyper.

North Macedonia thought they were level when defender Bojan Ilievski scored but VAR intervened with an offside – they finally had their equaliser, though, when Ezgjan Alioski was on target to deny Faes and Belgium three points with only four minutes to play.
A little later in the evening, Bilal El Khannouss started for Morocco, again in an international friendly, against Tunisia at the Grand Stade.
El Khannouss played 58 minutes in Fès, where recent UEFA Champions League winner and Paris Saint-Germain defender Achraf Hakimi, and then Ayoub El Kaabi, netted late to win it for Morocco.
Earlier in the day, Development Squad striker Chris Popov was captain for Wales Under-21s in their 4-0 defeat by Norway Under-21s – the visitors scoring twice in each half during the international friendly.

[Claudio Fannieri]

12 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

That's a serious underappreciation of Albrighton's talent. As much as I like Kasey and hope he goes on to do well if he has half of the career Albrighton's had he'll have done extremely well

Where do I seriously under appreciate Albrighton’s talent, all i am saying is I see similarities in that neither are particularly interested in doing lots of step overs etc they are both direct wingers and both give 100% each and every time, I can see Kasey becoming a very similar kind of player. 

[foxfanazer]

Just now, Claudio Fannieri said:

Where do I seriously under appreciate Albrighton’s talent, all i am saying is I see similarities in that neither are particularly interested in doing lots of step overs etc they are both direct wingers and both give 100% each and every time, I can see Kasey becoming a very similar kind of player. 

Yeah I get you. Not sure he quite has the technical ability of Albrighton but then again he's also playing with far worse players

[sphericalfox]

@Finnegan  having a party. The Welsh unFaesed.

[TonyN11]

Wow, Wales 3-0 down in Belgium but they've fought back to 3-3.

Yes,  our Wout is in the Belgian defence 👏 😀 

[Dan]

Faes is not a centre back.