Belgium head coach Roberto Martinez has spoken about his decision to call Charles De Ketelaere up for the World Cup, naming some of his key qualities.
De Ketelaere was Milan’s statement signing in the summer window after they invested over €30m to sign him from Club Brugge and while everyone hoped the Belgian would be an instant hit, but so far he has 0 goals and 1 assist to his name.
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His agent Tom De Mul jumped to his defence in an interview on a podcast yesterday speaking about the difficulties associated with being so young and adapting to an entirely different country and league, however one good sign is that De Ketelaere certainly still enjoys backing from the national team.
Martinez spoke to reporters about the squad that he named – one that did not include Divock Origi and only has Alexis Saelemaekers on the reserve list – with his comments relayed by Niewsblad (via MilanNews).
“It was not difficult for me to bring Mertens and De Ketelaere with me. Mertens brings a lot of experience. We have been working together for a long time. He is someone who encourages others. He has been in his new club for six months and has already played more than the last two years at Napoli,” he began.
“De Ketelaere started better than expected at Milan. Now he has to fight for his place, but he will take advantage of it to experience his first World Cup. That will do him good. The way he can play between the lines will help us.”
Started better than expected? He never watched the games. I still wish CDK luck and still waiting.
That’s kind of the coach to include him in the world cup squad, that might be the turning point. It would have been worse if he was dropped,
CDK leads Belgium to WC title… then returns to Italy to win the scudetto!
You mean CDK leads Belgium to the World Cup title then comes back to Milan to sit on the bench lol.
CDK played well when he first played for milan
but the ‘critics’ that only want to see goals and replays highlights are bashing him so much
his passes and pressure were very good
True
Not true
I think Martinez is trying to build up his confidence, and if that’s working, we would also be the beneficiary.
Of course, it wasn’t the best of starts for him, especially when being juxtaposed by Kvara’s debut this season. Hopefully having a good campaign would restore some of that confidence and this might just be the jumpstart that both CDK and Milan needed. Just as reminder, we signed Leao on similar fee when he was at similar age, and remember some of you were ready to ditch him for Hauge because he was so inconsistent and ‘lazy’.
Give the lad time. he’ll come good. Just hope that it won’t take 2 seasons for him to warm up. 🙂