Perhaps there was a breath of relief this afternoon when the Angola team was finally announced, excluding attacker Andre Vidigal of Stoke City.
Summertime acquisition Like his uncle Jose, Vidigal, a 25-year-old who played junior football for Portugal, has always aspired to earn senior international caps. However, Andre’s uncles Lito and Jorge played and coached for Angola, and there have been rumours on Luanda’s football forums that Andre may be convinced to join them.
However, his absence from the World Cup qualifying team against Cape Verde and Mauritius released today suggests he won’t be playing in the Africa Cup of Nations in January. Players may miss five Championship games and one FA Cup match because the competition runs from January 13 to February 11.
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oke City situation
However, Junior Tchamadeu, a 19-year-old right defender, may be sidelined for that amount of time for Stoke since he was called up for the first time today by Cameroon. Later this month, he will be present for the World Cup qualifiers against Mauritius and Libya, which are their final competitive matches before the African Nations Cup begins. Prior to joining Stoke earlier this year, Ryan Mmaee and Mehdi Leris were members of the teams for Algeria and Morocco, respectively. Despite this, neither player has been called up subsequently.
While international breaks also cause disruptions to the Championship throughout the first part of the season, the Premier League has a two-week break from January 15 to January 28.
While a date for squad announcements has not yet been set, in past tournaments, managers have been permitted to hold off until the last few days before the action began.
Call-ups for the national team indicate that a player is in strong form, but Stoke may use this disruption to Ivory Coast at a crucial part of the season, especially after injuries shook the team during the first few months of the campaign.
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