NEWCASTLE FORWARD ALEXANDER Isak has been called up by Sweden for World Cup qualifiers despite being sidelined by his club as he tries to force a move to Liverpool.
Isak is part of Sweden coach Jon Dahl Tomasson’s squad for the games against Slovenia and Kosovo on 5 and 8 September.
The 26-year-old has been banished from the Newcastle squad and has been training alone ever since he missed the club’s tour to Singapore and South Korea.
Liverpool have bid £110 million [€127m] for Isak so far but Saudi-owned Newcastle are reported to have slapped a £150 million [€174m] price tag on the player who scored 23 Premier League goals last season and helped his club win the League Cup.
Tomasson said the 2026 World Cup, to be played in Mexico, Canada and the United States, was “important” to Isak.
“The situation he is in is not perfect and he has not trained with his team,” the coach said.
“But he is a player who can be decisive and he wants to be part of our team. The World Cup is important for Alexander Isak.”
Meanwhile, Hugo Ekitike missed out on a place in the France squad for the start of their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign, but coach Didier Deschamps did hand a first senior call-up to highly-rated Monaco winger Maghnes Akliouche.
Ekitike has made an impressive start to his Liverpool career with three goals in three competitive outings since arriving in the close-season from Eintracht Frankfurt.
However the 23-year-old striker, who scored five goals in five appearances for the France Under-21 side last season, will have to wait for his chance in the senior squad, where competition is fierce.
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hugo-ekitike-of-liverpool-during-the-premier-league-match-newcastle-united-vs-liverpool-at-st-jamess-park-newcastle-united-kingdom-25th-august-2025photo-by-mark-cosgrovenews-imagesHugo Ekitike (file photo). Alamy Stock PhotoAlamy Stock Photo
“We were already following Hugo when he was at Frankfurt. The fact that he is now at Liverpool and is still proving to be very effective, is great,” Deschamps told reporters in Paris.
“Obviously he has the potential to be in the France squad.”
France, World Cup winners in 2018 and runners-up in 2022, begin their bid to qualify for next year’s finals in North America with a trip to Poland to play Ukraine next Friday, 5 September.
They then host Iceland in Paris on Tuesday, 9 September. Azerbaijan will be their other opponents in Group D, with further matches to be played in October and November and the group winners qualifying automatically for the finals.
Akliouche, 23, has been on the fringes of the full France squad for some time thanks to his impressive displays for Monaco which have led to him being linked with other big clubs around Europe.
He was part of Thierry Henry’s team which won the silver medal at the Paris Olympics last year.
Rayan Cherki, who made his senior France bow in June in the UEFA Nations League finals just before joining Manchester City from Lyon, is also included.
Experienced Marseille midfielder Adrien Rabiot is named as well despite being frozen out by his club and put up for sale after being involved in a dressing-room fight with a teammate earlier this month.
Randal Kolo Muani, who is frozen out at Paris Saint-Germain and on the look-out for a new club, and the Inter Milan defender Benjamin Pavard are among the players dropped since the last France squad.
And Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann has brought back centre-back Antonio Rudiger while dropping winger Leroy Sane in his squad for the upcoming qualifiers.
27-august-2025-hesse-frankfurtmain-german-coach-julian-nagelsmann-speaks-during-the-press-conference-of-the-german-football-association-dfb-to-announce-the-squad-for-the-start-of-the-qualifyingGermany head coach Julian Nagelsmann (file photo). Alamy Stock PhotoAlamy Stock Photo
The Germany coach was hit with a wave of injuries and is without forwards Jamal Musiala, Kai Havertz and Tim Kleindienst, first-choice goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen and defenders Nico Schlotterbeck and Benjamin Henrichs.
The Germany coach named three newcomers in the 23-man squad: Eintracht Frankfurt defender Nnamdi Collins, Augsburg goalkeeper Finn Dahmen and midfielder Paul Nebel from Mainz.
Sane, who has made 70 Germany appearances since making his debut in 2015, was left out of the first squad announced since he moved from Bayern Munich to Galatasaray in the summer.
Rudiger has been called up for the first time since his outburst in the Spanish Cup final in May, when the Real Madrid centre-back threw an object at the referee while verbally abusing him.
In May, Nagelsmann criticised Rudiger’s behaviour, saying: “He knows this can’t happen again, otherwise there will be very serious consequences.”
In an interview with Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Rudiger apologised for his “wrong and excessive” behaviour.
In addition to Rudiger, Nagelsmann also recalled Stuttgart duo Angelo Stiller and Jamie Leweling, along with Mainz midfielder Nadiem Amiri.
Dahmen, who is also eligible to represent England, comes into the squad to replace the injured Barcelona keeper ter Stegen.
Germany face Slovakia in Bratislava on 4 September before hosting Northern Ireland three days later in Cologne.
– © AFP 2025