Everton’s midfield duo of Amadou Onana and Idrissa Gana Gueye have both been selected by their national teams to play in the World Cup in Qatar at the end of the month.
Although Everton have had quite a tough season so far, the two have played a large part in the toffees’ good performances, with fellow midfielder, Alex Iwobi describing the pair as “monster midfielders”.
Amadou Onana joined the blues from LOSC Lille in the summer window and has consolidated his first-team status already.
Although he is still just 21 years of age, he already has two caps for the Belgian national side, with his most recent coming in a 1-0 loss to the Netherlands in the UEFA nations league. However, with the likes of Kevin De Bruyne and Youri Tielemans in the squad, his game time could be quite minimal.
Whilst Onana’s selection for the Belgian side might have come as a slight surprise, Idrissa Gana Gueye’s selection for the Senegalese national side was not a surprise.
Senegal have a decent squad lined up for this year’s World Cup, with the likes of Bayern Munich’s Sadio Mane, Chelsea’s Kalidou Coulibaly and Everton-linked Nikolas Jackson being named in the squad. The Everton midfielder is likely to play a vital role in any success his side has.
The 33-year-old has been capped 62 times for his national side, scoring 6 goals in that time. However, this will not be his first World Cup.
He played all 3 games that Senegal played in the 2018 World Cup, unfortunately not making it out of the group stage.
Amadou gets the call-up for Belgium's #FIFAWorldCup squad. 🇧🇪 https://t.co/31ezpyBMbz
— Everton (@Everton) November 10, 2022
Everton will now be hoping that neither picks up any serious injuries during the World Cup fixtures going into an important second half of the Premier League season, whilst they travel to Sydney to play friendlies against Celtic and Western Sydney Wanderers.