Southampton midfielder Roméo Lavia has received a phone call from Belgium boss Domenico Tedesco, urging him to play for the country’s U23 side this summer.
That’s according to Het Nieuwsblad, who say the national coach wants the Southampton man to continue adding experience with the youngsters in the coming weeks.
They explain that Tedesco recently called up Lavia to discuss the possible call-up, with the player in Jacky Mathijssen’s pre-selection for the U23 European Championship in Georgia and Romania.
The national coach believes that a youth European Championship ‘is more useful’ for the development of Lavia than him sitting on the bench in two of the senior sides qualifying games against Austria and Estonia.
He believes that the youth side can ‘make good use’ of the midfielder and give him valuable experience in a group with the Netherlands, Portugal and Georgia.
The decision will be Lavia’s, who has to choose between continuing the season or taking a rest after playing 35 times for Southampton this season.
That ‘accumulation of matches’ is already making itself felt and he can ill afford to pick up any new injuries, particularly with Premier League teams ‘closely monitoring’ his situation.
On the other hand, the U23 tournament is set to be followed by ‘dozens of scouts’ for European clubs and could be an ideal platform for him to put himself ‘in the spotlight’.
