AFCON and Asia Cup: Key Players Missing From Europe’s Top Leagues

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With the Africa Cup of Nations and the Asia Cup set to kick off in the Ivory Coast and Qatar, respectively, Forebet has scoured Europe’s top leagues to find the biggest names heading to the mid-season international tournaments.

Premier League

A total of 39 Premier League players will feature at the Africa Cup of Nations and Asia Cup in the coming weeks. Only three teams – Burnley, Manchester City and Newcastle United – are not affected by the tournaments.

The highest-profile absentees are undoubtedly Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah (Egypt) and Tottenham’s Heung-min Son (South Korea). Salah has racked up 18 goals and nine assists this season, while Son has bagged 12 goals and five assists.

Nottingham Forest have the most AFCON participants, with seven players of their players – Ola Aina (Nigeria), Serge Aurier (Ivory Coast), Willy Boly (Ivory Coast), Ibrahim Sangare (Ivory Coast) Chiekhou Kouyate (Senegal) and Moussa Niakhate (Senegal) – heading to the tournament.

Other notable Premier League stars include Manchester United’s Andre Onana (Cameroon), Arsenal’s Takehiro Tomiyasu (Japan), Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma (Japan), Chelsea’s Nicolas Jackson (Senegal) and West Ham’s Mohammed Kudus (Ghana).

Bundesliga

The Bundesliga will also be greatly impacted by the Asia Cup and AFCON. A total of 28 Bundesliga players will miss domestic action, with 17 heading to the Ivory Coast and 11 travelling to Qatar.

Two of the league’s top scorers – VfB Stuttgart’s Serhou Guirassy (Guinea) and Bayer Leverkusen’s Victor Boniface (Nigeria) – will compete at AFCON. Guirassy has netted 17 goals in 14 games this term, while Boniface has notched 10 goals and seven assists.

Leverkusen will also be without Odilon Kossounou (Ivory Coast), Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso) and Amine Adli (Morocco), while Bayern Munich will be missing Kim Min-jae (South Korea) and Noussair Mazraoui (Morocco).

Borussia Dortmund will have to make do without Sebastien Haller (Ivory Coast) and Ramy Bensebaini (Algeria), while RB Leipzig will wave goodbye to Amadou Haidara (Mali) and Ilaix Moriba (Guinea).

La Liga, Serie A & Ligue 1

Europe’s other top leagues are not as affected by AFCON and the Asia Cup. Still, there are plenty of notable names from La Liga, Serie A and Ligue 1 heading to the Ivory Coast and Qatar.

In La Liga, Atletico Madrid will be without Reinildo (Mozambique). Athletic Club’s Inaki Williams (Ghana), Real Sociedad’s Takefusa Kubo (Japan) and Sevilla’s Youssef En-Nesyri (Morocco) are also among the absentees.

Over in Serie A, the biggest names are Napoli’s Victor Osimhen (Nigeria), AC Milan’s Ismael Bennacer (Algeria) and Samuel Chukwueze (Nigeria), Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman (Nigeria) and Lazio Daichi Kamada (Japan).

Given that many African-born players with citizenship in their respective countries play in France, Ligue 1 will lose multiple players to AFCON. PSG’s Achraf Hakimi (Morocco), Monaco’s Mohamed Camara (Mali) and PSG’s Kang-in Lee (South Korea) are among the top names.