Newly appointed Red Devils manager Mark van Bommel has announced his first squad for the upcoming Nations League games of the Belgian national football team. With the inclusion of Mika Godts and Romeo Lavia and the exclusion of Thomas Meunier and Alexis Saelemaekers, he is marking a new chapter for the Red Devils.
The majority of the squad selected by Van Bommel represented Belgium at the World Cup, with Jari de Busser, Kyriani Sabbe, Romeo Lavia, Mandela Keita, Malick Fofana, Mika Godts and Loïs Openda being the new additions to the squad.
Sabbe and De Busser are part of the national team for the very first time, with the other new faces having had sporadic appearances in the past few years.
Alexis Saelemaekers and Thomas Meunier have lost their spot in the squad to the new generation of Red Devils. Axel Witsel retired after the World Cup.
Van Bommel named 28 Red Devils in his squad, while he can only field 23 players in the official lineup. The coach brought in additional players as Belgium will play four games in a very short time frame.
Credit: Belgian Red Devils
Winger Jeremy Doku was not available for the squad after he picked up an injury in the Community Shield in August, when his team, Manchester City, lost to Arsenal.
Midfielder Amadou Onana is still recovering from the ACL injury he suffered in Belgium's 4-1 win over the United States in the last 16 at the World Cup.
Van Bommel took over the reins of the Belgian national team from Frenchman Rudi Garcia after the previous manager reached the quarter-finals of the 2026 World Cup held in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
The tournament is seen as the final dawn of Belgium's golden generation, as only Romelu Lukaku, Thomas Meunier, Axel Witsel, Kevin De Bruyne, Youri Tielemans and Thibaut Courtois remained of the core that led Belgium to a third-place finish at the 2018 World Cup.
Of the Golden Generation that played in Russia, only De Bruyne, Lukaku and Tielemans remain in the current squad. Courtois has said he will skip the Nations League as his body can no longer handle the packed calendar.
Belgium will face Italy (25/09), France (28/09), Turkey (02/10) and France again (05/10) in the group stage of the Nations League.
