Where in the World will Liverpool’s players be this summer?

May 24, 2013
Guest Article

Less than a week after the season has ended and we’re already looking for our next football fix. Look no further, Jack Williams has all the info for the Liverpool players on international duty this summer.

There is nearly two months until Liverpool’s first pre-season friendly against an Indonesian XI so what do we have to entertain us until then?! There are in fact four competitions going on this summer that Liverpool’s players are likely to be involved in.

First off there is the Confederations Cup – a prelude to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil (15th June-30th June), this competition has 8 teams from across the world all competing in it. Not all teams have announced squads yet but here is a rundown of who is likely to be involved:

Spain – Reina
Uruguay – Suarez, Coates

Neither Lucas or Coutinho have been picked for Brazil and Fabio Borini isn’t in the Italian squad. The other teams involved are: Japan, Mexico, Tahiti and Nigeria.

The next biggest competition this summer is the European Under 21 Championship (5th June-18th June). Again there are 8 teams but there is likely to be more Liverpool players involved in this than the Confederations Cup. Below are the teams and any possible/confirmed LFC inclusions:

England – Wisdom, Henderson, Shelvey, Robinson
Italy – Borini

Other participants: Germany, Israel, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain

Note that full back Jack Robinson was called into the squad following the withdrawal of Southampton‘s Luke Shaw on Friday.

You may be wondering why I have not included Suso above, this is because he recently captained the Spanish Under 20 side and from what I’ve heard is more likely to travel with the U20’s then the U21’s.

The Under 20 World Cup is being held in Turkey from the 21st of June to the 13th of July. There are significantly more teams in this tournament than the others with 24 teams competing. I won’t list all of them but below are the LFC players that could be involved.

England – Flanagan, Coady
Portugal – Joao Carlos Teixeira
Spain- Suso

Finally, the Under 19 European Championships, which run from the 20th July to 1st August. The way the competition works is very complicated with qualifying being split into various levels and the ‘Elite round’ of qualifying does not finish until the 11th of June. Because of this we don’t know what teams have qualified yet but there will be 8 teams and it is looking likely that England will be one of those teams considering the Elite round qualifying group they’re in.

Brad Smith (injured), Jack Dunn, Adam Morgan and Raheem Sterling have all been called up in the last year but it looks like Jordon Ibe will be included with Sterling probably not considered due to the fact he was going to be in the U21 squad but has had to pull out due to injury.

Hopefully the above has shown you that the next two months won’t be as painful as they could be! The Confederations Cup should provide some good entertainment and Liverpool are set to have players at all of the youth tournaments. If it wasn’t for injuries to players such as Samed Yesil and Marc Pelosi the number would be even higher.

Click here for Liverpool’s pre-season dates