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As the international break approaches, there are several football players to keep an eye on who are expected to shine on the international stage.
Vincenzo Grifo
It’s been a very bad sour period in the Italian camp since winning Euro 2020, and ahead of them attempting to qualify for the tournament as the defending champions, they are once again lacking goalscorers up top.
For these upcoming games, Roberto Mancini has called on the services of Domenico Berardi, Gianluca Scamacca and Wilfried Gnonto, amongst others, but goalscoring attention will fall on the shoulders of Vincenzo Grifo.
Grifo has so far scored 12 goals in 24 games for Freiburg and only Niclas Füllkrug has netted more in the Bundesliga. What’s more, the Freiburg striker has scored four goals in eight games for Italy already.
James Maddison
James Maddison went to the World Cup with England after another excellent season with Leicester City, but he failed to get even a second on the field.
Ahead of the games for England this international break, Conor Gallagher and Maddison are the only creative midfielders in the squad, and it likely means the Leicester man will get a runout after all.
In fact, only Kevin De Bruyne and Martin Odegaard have more goal involvements this season in the Premier League from midfield than Maddison’s 15, and it would be criminal if Southgate didn’t give him game time.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
The legendary Swede is back with the national team after a year’s absence and almost seven years on from initially retiring from Sweden duty.
Now 41 years old, Zlatan Ibrahimovic has finally kicked his lengthy knee injury and scored a penalty against Udinese a few weeks back for AC Milan and could start for Sweden in these upcoming games.
The striker already has 62 goals and is Sweden’s all-time top scorer.
Ivan Toney
The exclusion of Ivan Toney from England’s World Cup squad threw a lot of questions the way of Southgate. In the end, his absence wasn’t really felt, but after scoring 16 Premier League goals in 25 appearances, the Englishman has finally got his deserved callup.
Toney is not likely to start all the games and bench Harry Kane as a result, but we expect the Brentford star to get minutes at some stage, especially given how Kane has barely missed a second of action for Tottenham Hotspur so far.
Joselu
It’s been a topsy-turvy career for Spanish striker Joselu. He struggled at three different Bundesliga clubs last decade, and also tried his hand at Premier League football with Stoke City and Newcastle United and also failed to make an impact.
However, Joselu has netted 12 times in 22 games for Espanyol and only Enes Ünal and Robert Lewandowski have scored more in La Liga so far.
