DEDRYCK BOYATA has this morning been officially named in Belgium’s final 23-man squad for the World Cup in Russia.
Rather bizarrely the news was leaked last week when a Belgium tv station showed footage of mattresses heading to Russia for each squad member – and each mattress had the player’s name on it. The big Celtic central defender’s name was shown which sort off gave the game away.
And while Boyata was sweating over making the squad initially he could end up with a starting position as the fitness of Vincent Company remains a real concern for manager Roberto Martinez.
The Manchester City captain started the game against Portugal at the weekend but had to go off with another injury and he was replaced by the Celtic star.
Boyata’s inclusion officially takes Celtic’s World Cup participation number to four. He joins Tom Rogic (Australia), Mikael Lustig (Sweden) and Cristian Gamboa (Costa Rica) at the tournament. This will earn Celtic almost £1million from FIFA, guaranteeing the Hoops the biggest financial windfall of all the Scottish sides.
The downside though is that the players will be unavailable for most if not all of the Champions League qualifiers. Gamboa is likely to be leaving Celtic after the World Cup but the other three would be first team starters.
Here’s the Belgium squad…
