Liverpool player rejects national team call-up – Player ‘does not intend’ to rejoin squad

Liverpool midfielder Fabio Carvalho decided not to join Portugal’s U21 squad in this international break.

As revealed by the Portuguese Football Federation, the player communicated that he’s not willing to continue playing for their youth squads, with no apparent reason for that.

“Fabio Carvalho informed the Portuguese Football Federation, through some SMS messages, that he does not intend to continue representing Portugal at the under-21 level,” says the statement.

At the age of 20, Fabio Carvalho was perhaps hopeful of a call-up for the World Cup squad, or he’s switching his focus to Liverpool until he actually gets the chance in his country’s first team.

Something interesting is that when covering the news, newspaper A Bola points out that Fabio Carvalho is eligible to feature for England’s first team, as he’s been living in the country since the age of 13.

The midfielder has already featured for England’s U15, U16, U17 and U18 levels, and it’s only at the U21 that he accepted to play for Portugal, where he even made a few appearances this year. So it indeeds sounds like he’ll take whoever calls him up for the first team.

Following a €6m move from Fulham this summer, Carvalho has 16 appearances for Liverpool, still working to convince Jurgen Klopp he deserves a starting place in the Reds’ team.