Liverpool supporters have lots to get excited about as the build-up to Euro 2024 continues.
With the tournament in Germany set to begin on Friday, 10 Liverpool players are gearing up to star for the countries.
England are the early favourites, with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez hoping to play their part for Gareth Southgate’s team.
Liverpool harbour players for other teams who could have a shot at the title, though. Diogo Jota’s Portugal will fancy their chances as will Ibrahima Konate and France. Meanwhile, don’t rule out the Reds’ Dutch trio either.
Beyond current members of the Liverpool squad though, there were also initially three former players to keep an eye on. On Wednesday, that trio became a quartet.
Emre Can earns last-minute Germany call-up
Not too many have left Liverpool during the Jurgen Klopp years and gone on to better things.
By and large, Liverpool have been good at recognising when players were ready to leave. For most, their years after leaving Anfield were a comedown.
Two of the three who were travelling to Euro 2024 before Wednesday certainly fell into this category.
Gini Wijnaldum is perhaps one of the best examples of a post-Liverpool malaise. However, the 33-year-old has resurrected his career a little under Steven Gerrard and is part of the Netherlands squad.
READ MORE: One player Liverpool should look to sign from every Euro 2024 squad
Xherdan Shaqiri was never really able to show his best at Anfield but has tapered off even more since leaving in 2021. Nevertheless, tournament football is where Shaqiri does his best work and he’ll be a key man for Switzerland.
The third – Hungary’s Peter Gulacsi – didn’t play a single game across five years as an academy player at Liverpool.
On Wednesday, journalist Florian Plettenberg confirmed that a fourth former Liverpool star had been added to the tournament.
“DFB confirm that Aleksandar Pavlovic will miss the EURO due to an infection caused by a recurring tonsillitis,” says Plettenberg. “Julian Nagelsmann has nominated Emre Can now!”
Emre Can continues resurgence
Emre Can probably still falls into the category of players who mistakenly thought the grass was greener away from Liverpool.
The German reportedly wanted a release clause inserted in order to sign a new contract back in 2018. Having been refused that, he left on a free transfer to join Juventus.
After failing to make the grade at Juve, Can returned home to Germany and to Borussia Dortmund where he’s been since 2020.
Although he has never quite lived up to his days at Liverpool – where a famous bicycle kick goal against Watford was deemed ‘spectacular’ by Klopp [Sky Sports] – Can has still made himself a good career.
The 30-year-old recently captained Dortmund to their first Champions League final in 11 years and has been a solid player for them for four years now.
On top of that, Can has collected 43 Germany caps and could well now win the Euros in his home nation this summer. Not a bad career. Still, he should have stayed at Liverpool.