Tottenham and Chelsea Each Place Trio on Belgium World Cup Squad

Belgium have unveiled their 2018 World Cup roster, and it has a very strong English Premier League presence. Nine teams from the British top flight, so nearly half the league, placed at least one player on the Red Devils, with four sides seeing at least two of their players make the 28 man roster.

London clubs Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea lead the way, each seeing a triad of their own make the cut, while both Manchester clubs have a duo of players on board.

For the headline news from the Belgium World Cup squad though, we shift from English Premier League to Italy’s Serie A, where AS Roma star Radja Nainggolan was snubbed, and he did not take the news very well.

After learning that he was cut, Nainggolan announced his retirement from international football, citing a personality clash as the reason for his being left off.

Nainggolan implied that his individuality was the reason for his being left off, and he announced his exit via his Instagram account:

Met veel pijn in het hart maak ik een einde aan men internationale carriere… ik heb er altijd alles aangedaan om er bij te zijn en belgie te vertegenwoordigen ??… spijtig genoeg is ECHT zijn niet goed voor SOMMIGE… En vanaf vandaag zal ik de eerste supporter zijn…. Purtroppo molto a malincuore termina la mia carriera internazionale… ho sempre fatto di tutto per poter rappresentare la mia nazione ?? Essere se stessi a volte puó dare fastidio… Da oggi saró il primo tifoso… Very reluctantly my international career comes to an end…I’ve always done everthing I could to represent my country?? Being yourself can be bothering …From this day on I will be the first fan…

A post shared by Radja Nainggolan (@radjanainggolan.4) on May 21, 2018 at 4:11am PDT

2018 Belgium World Cup Roster

Attack: Michy Batshuayi (Chelsea), Christian Benteke (Crystal Palace), Eden Hazard (Chelsea), Thorgan Hazard (Borussia Monchengladbach), Romelu Lukaku (Manchester United), Dries Mertens (Napoli)

Midfield: Yannick Carrasco (Dalian Yifang), Nacer Chadli (West Bromwich Albion), Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), Mousa Dembele (Tottenham Hotspur), Marouane Fellaini (Manchester United), Adnan Januzaj (Real Sociedad), Youri Tielemans (Monaco), Axel Witsel (Tianjin Quanjian)

Defense: Toby Alderweireld (Tottenham Hotspur), Dedryck Boyata (Celtic), Laurent Ciman (LAFC), Leander Dendoncker (Anderlecht), Christian Kabasele (Watford), Vincent Kompany (Manchester City), Jordan Lukaku (Lazio), Thomas Meunier (Paris Saint-Germain), Thomas Vermaelen (Barcelona), Jan Vertonghen (Tottenham Hotspur)

Goalkeeping: Thibaut Courtois (Chelsea), Simon Mignolet (Liverpool), Koen Casteels (Wolfsburg), Matz Sels (Newcastle United)

Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.

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