Franck Kessié, Ismaël Bennacer and Fodé Ballo-Touré will all be with their national teams after the Christmas break, trying to win AFCON.
The Africa Cup of Nations is set to run from January 9th to February 6th and the nations participating have announced their squads for the competition.
Milan will have 3 representatives in AFCON, in 3 different teams: Fodé Ballo-Touré for Senegal, Franck Kessié for Ivory Coast and Ismaël Bennacer for Algeria.
Senegal will be in Group B, fighting against Guinea, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Ivory Coast and Algeria, who won the competition last time with Bennacer being the Player of the Tournament, share the same group, Group E, together with Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone.
This means that coach Stefano Pioli will have to do without these three players for potentially the entire month of January and will need to find new solutions in midfield and defense.
Ivory Coast Squad for AFCON 2021
| Goalkeepers | Defenders | Midfielders | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sylvain Gbohouo (Wolkite Ketema) | Serge Aurier (Villarreal) | Habib Maïga (Metz) | Wilfried Zaha (Crystal Palace) |
| Badra Ali Sangaré (JDR Stars) | Eric Bailly (Manchester United) | Maxwel Cornet (Burnley) | Jean Evrard Kouassi (Trabzonspor) |
| Abdoul Karim Cissé (ASEC Mimosas) | Willy Boly (Wolverhampton Wanderers) | Serey Dié (Sion) | Nicolas Pépé (Arsenal) |
| Ira Eliezer Tapé (San Pedro) | Wilfried Kanon (Pyramids) | Ibrahim Sangaré (PSV Eindhoven) | Sébastien Haller (Ajax) |
| Odilon Kossounou (Bayer Leverkusen) | Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro (Lazio) | Christian Kouamé (Anderlecht) | |
| Simon Deli (Adana Demirspor) | Franck Kessié (Milan) | Yohan Boli (Al-Rayyan) | |
| Ghislain Konan (Reims) | Hamed Traorè (Sassuolo) | Karim Konaté (ASEC Mimosas) | |
| Jeremie Boga (Sassuolo) | |||
| Max-Alain Gradel (Sivasspor) | |||
| Jean Michaël Seri (Fulham) |
Algeria Squad for AFCON 2021
| Goalkeepers | Defenders | Midfielders | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raïs M'Bolhi (Al-Ettifaq) | Aïssa Mandi (Villarreal) | Ramiz Zerrouki (Twente) | Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City) |
| Moustapha Zeghba (Damac) | Abdelkader Bedrane (Esperance) | Haris Belkebla (Brest) | Adam Ounas (Napoli) |
| Alexandre Oukidja (Metz) | Mehdi Tahrat (Al Gharafa) | Sofiane Bendebka (Al-Fateh) | Youcef Belaïli (Free Agent) |
| Djamel Benlamri (Qatar) | Adem Zorgane (Royal Charleroi) | Saïd Benrahma (West Ham United) | |
| Mohamed Amine Tougai (ES Tunis) | Sofiane Feghouli (Galatasaray) | Farid Boulaya (Metz) | |
| Youcef Atal (Nice) | Ismaël Bennacer (Milan) | Yacine Brahimi (Al Rayyan) | |
| Houcine Benayada (Étoile du Sahel) | Islam Slimani (Lyon) | ||
| Réda Halaïmia (Beerschot) | Baghdad Bounedjah (Al Sadd) | ||
| Ramy Bensebaini (Borussia Mönchengladbach) | Mohamed El Amine Amoura (Lugano) | ||
| Ilyes Chetti (ES Tunis) |
Senegal Squad for AFCON 2021
| Goalkeepers | Defenders | Midfielders | Forwards |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seny Dieng (Queens Park Rangers) | Fodé Ballo-Touré (Milan) | Idrissa Gueye (PSG) | Keita Baldé Diao (Cagliari) |
| Alfred Gomis (Stade Rennes) | Saliou Ciss (Nancy) | Pape Gueye (Marseille) | Boulaye Dia (Villarreal) |
| Edouard Mendy (Chelsea) | Pape Abou Cissé (Olympiakos) | Joseph Lopy (Socahux) | Famara Diedhiou (Alanayspor) |
| Abdou Diallo (PSG) | Mamadou Loum (Deportivo Alavés) | Habib Diallo (RC Strasbourg) | |
| Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli) | Nampalys Mendy (Leicester City) | Bamba Dieng (Marseille) | |
| Cheikhou Kouyaté (Crystal Palace) | Moustapha Name (Paris FC) | Sadio Mané (Liverpool) | |
| Ibrahima Mbaye (Bologna) | Pape Matar Sarr (Metz) | Ismaïla Sarr (Watford) | |
| Bouna Sarr (Bayern Munich) | Mame Thiam (Kayserispor) | ||
| Abdoulaye Seck (Antwerp) |
Great! More injurys or covid
Teams should stop buying african players till AFCON decide to make it a 4 years competition.
Just been watching this corona guy for porto, (interesting name lol) looks really good, been offered us apparently. Great at beating players, that flair we need.
I watched Porto a lot. Clearly an upgrade to our right side. At the same time there are better options available if we want to spend.
++ I don’t think he would join us. It’s just another Thauvin situation
Don’t you think we will get thauvin? I was hoping he’d join in january
For me its better we sell Kessie on Jan than watch him pack his bags at the end of season to Inter Merda (again). Sigh
Can you force him to sign a contract with another club? The man made his decision, we just don’t know the club yet
Just bring Pobega back from Torino, after all we will need him anyway since Kessie is leaving. Pobega and Tonali the future midfield core of Milan and Italy NT.
Pobega is more attack minded tho. He can play as a DM as well but he is at his best when he is closer to the attack. I think we need someone with more defensive traits to replace Kessie.
Bayern play 4231 with Kimmich and Goretzka in the middle. They are both playmakers, Kimmich a more defensive one while Goretzka is more attacking minded. And it works.
I understand that. As i said he can play as a DM as well. But his best atributes wont be shown in that position.
A big statement, Pobega is good but I have my doubts.
Latest rumour, Chelsea no wing bks left and are after theo. Milan put 50 million asking price for him but Chelsea not put off. Keep or sell, what u guys think?
Top 3 in his position which also is the toughest spot to fill.
Take a good look at the players who took the LB since our cap retired. Now we finally have a good LB, there is no fair price for the man. Pay all our Milan’s debt, build the stadium and yeah, take him.
If they pay 100mil then yea. But im not sure if those money will be reinvested for new players any way, so it may be better to keep him for us fans. Cause we may be stuck with Balo as a starter on the left after that.
Fiorentina just signed Ikone for 15 millions. That’s a steal.
Ya joking! Missed out there, we be OK saladman and krunic would have benched him anyway lol
Also a warning to kessie, look at van der beek at man u