The new coach of the national team of Belgium, Frenchman Rudi Garcia, has summoned 26 players for the upcoming visit to Skopje and later the match against Wales.

photo by L’Avenir: some Belgian players in March

Garcia surprised everyone in Belgium by calling up former Portugal youth national team player Diego Moreira, who has been in great form for Strasbourg in the French Ligue 1. Born in Belgium, his request to switch international allegiance to Belgium was approved by FIFA earlier this month. He is a versatile left winger.

Star player Kevin De Bruyne leads the Red Devils, with Thibaut Courtois and Romelu Lukaku following him. Garcia decided not to summone Chelsea’s young midfielder Roméo Lavia. “He has only been able to play a few games as a starter. We saw his qualities in those, but he was injured too often to pick up his peak form. I am not going to select players for their potential; the competition is simply fierce in midfield, especially with Onana’s return,” – said Garcia.

Due to injury absent is Fulham’s full back Timothy Castagne.

Thibaut Courtois – Real Madrid
Matz Sels – Nottingham Forest
Senne Lammens – Antwerp
Maarten Vandevoordt – Leipzig

Zeno Debast – Sporting
Maxim De Cuyper – Club Brugge
Koni De Winter – Genoa
Wout Faes – Leicester City
Brandon Mechele – Club Brugge
Thomas Meunier – Lille
Diego Moreira – Strasbourg
Arthur Theate – Eintracht Frankfurt

Kevin De Bruyne – Manchester City
Charles De Ketelaere – Atalanta
Malick Fofana – Lyon
Jorthy Mokio – Ajax
Amadou Onana – Aston Villa
Nicolas Raskin – Rangers
Alexis Saelemaekers – Roma
Youri Tielemans – Aston Villa
Hans Vanaken – Club Brugge

Jérémy Doku – Manchester City
Romelu Lukaku – Napoli
Dodi Lukebakio – Sevilla
Loïs Openda – Leipzig
Leandro Trossard – Arsenal

Belgium will visit Skopje for the match against Macedonia on June 6 at the National arena Todor Proeski at 20.45 CET. Three days later they will host Wales at home. This will be first matches for the red Devils in the World Cup qualifiers as in March they were playing Nations League promotion/relegation play-off against Ukraine and managed to stay in League A.