The pitfall of signing an African player: List of players Premier League clubs might lose to Afcon 2024
The 2024 Africa Cup of Nations scheduled to run between January 13 and February 11, is set to disrupt the European season, with some Premier League clubs earmarked to be affected the most.
For years, one of the risks of signing African players has been the prospect of losing them for the tournament during the busy winter period.
Earlier attempts to avoid such a situation saw the tournament being rescheduled for June and July. However, due to concerns over adverse weather conditions in Ivory Coast, the tournament was pushed back to its initial calendar.
This news upon its announcement seems not to have settled down well with a few clubs in Europe, especially some Premier League sides, who might miss the services of over 40 players for several weeks as those players will be heading to the Ivory Coast, the host nation for the tournament.
As it stands now, defending champions Manchester City and Newcastle will be the only teams to be unaffected, with Nottingham Forest likely to be the most affected club as the projection sees a league-high seven players who, so far, have played a significant amount of minutes this season.
Chelsea who are struggling with goal scoring is set to miss one of their current top goal scorers Jackson while Liverpool is set to lose star man Mohamed Salah.
Manchester United will lose three players including first-choice goalkeeper Andre Onana.
Here’s a full list of players who could be heading to next year’s tournament, and who have made at least one matchday squad for their respective clubs so far this season.
