Newcastle United winger Anthony Elanga has been named in Sweden’s 26-man World Cup squad ahead of this summer’s tournament.
Elanga joined Newcastle from Nottingham Forest for £55million last summer but has so far flattered to deceive with just two games remaining in the season.
The 24-year-old has registered no goals and just one assist in the Premier League this season. He scored in the Carabao Cup semi-final against Manchester City and a brace in the Champions League at Barcelona, though all three goals were consolation strikes in the end.
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Despite his struggles on the pitch at club level, Elanga helped Sweden recover from a disastrous qualifying campaign to claim a spot at this summer’s 2026 World Cup in North America.
Sweden failed to win any qualifying matches, but their standing in the Nations League awarded them a play-off spot. From that they took full advantage, with Elanga opening the scoring in a 3-2 win over Poland to confirm a spot in this summer’s tournament for Graham Potter’s side.
Sweden squad confirmed
Sweden’s 26-man squad also includes former Newcastle striker, Alexander Isak. Like Elanga, Isak has also struggled since a big money move last summer.
The forward joined Liverpool for a Premier League record £130million fee last summer, but various fitness issues have seen him score just three league goals so far this season.
Emil Krafth, who suffered a serious knee injury while on international duty with Sweden back in November, has not been included in the squad having not featured for Newcastle since.
Here is the Sweden World Cup squad list:
Goalkeepers
Viktor Johansson (Stoke City)
Kristoffer Nordfeldt (AIK)
Jacob Widell Zetterström (Derby County)
Victor Lindelöf (Aston Villa, captain)
Isak Hien (Atalanta)
Gustaf Lagerbielke (Braga)
Carl Starfelt (Celta Vigo)
Hjalmar Ekdal (Burnley)
Gabriel Gudmundsson (Leeds United)
Daniel Svensson (Borussia Dortmund)
Emil Holm (Juventus)
Eric Smith (St. Pauli)
Midfielders & forwards
Lucas Bergvall (Tottenham Hotspur)
Yasin Ayari (Brighton)
Mattias Svanberg (VfL Wolfsburg)
Jesper Karlström (Udinese)
Taha Ali (Malmö FF)
Anthony Elanga (Newcastle United)
Alexander Isak (Liverpool)
Viktor Gyökeres (Arsenal)
Gustaf Nilsson (Club Brugge)
Benjamin Nygren (Celtic)
Besfort Zeneli (Union SG)
Alexander Bernhardsson (Holstein Kiel)
Ken Sema (Pafos)
Eddie Howe ‘confident’ Anthony Elanga will come good for Newcastle United
Despite a difficult first season on Tyneside, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe is keeping the faith that the club will see some consistent quality from Elanga in return for their significant investment.
Howe said: “There have been some games in there where he's found it a little bit more difficult, as every player would.
“I still believe the best is very much yet to come for Ant here. I think he's got some outstanding qualities that we really value and we really want in the team, but there'll be an element of frustration, I'm sure, for him that he hasn't shown his consistent best throughout the season.
“But as I said, players take different times to settle, different times to get into a full understanding of what we ask them to do.
“Again, he's a player that looks like he's benefiting from full-team training at the moment and I'm really confident that next season he'll have a really great year.”
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