Cameroon’s squad for the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast is set – and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting is missing from national coach Rigobert Song’s squad. Meanwhile, Noussair Mazraoui was nominated for Morocco.
Not at the 2024 Africa Cup: Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting. IMAGO/Christian Schroedter
The 34-year-old’s name appeared in the preliminary squad of the untamable lions, but the Bayern striker is now missing from the final squad for the Africa Cup of Nations starting on January 13th. This emerges from a statement from the association on Thursday morning.
Choupo-Moting has appeared 73 times for the Cameroon national team and scored 20 goals. However, in the 2023 calendar year he only appeared for Coach Song once, in December in the 3-0 win against Burundi. In October he canceled his international trip “at the last minute” due to muscular problems, as the association said at the time. He was also not in the Cameroon squad for the international match phase in November.
He recently only made short appearances at FC Bayern, coming on as a substitute in stoppage time in the 2-1 win against Wolfsburg and previously in the 83rd minute in the 3-0 win against Stuttgart. This season he has two goals and two assists in a total of 14 appearances.
Kim and Mazraoui nominated for Asian and African Cups
For Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel, this means one fewer absences in the coming weeks. Min-Jae Kim is in South Korea’s squad for the Asian Cup, national coach Jürgen Klinsmann confirmed on Thursday. Right-back Noussair Mazraoui has been named to Morocco’s Africa Cup of Nations squad despite his current injury. It is still unclear whether he will be fit in time for the start of the tournament after his torn muscle bundle. Morocco starts the tournament on January 17th with a game against Tanzania.
“Imagine that the two (Kim and Choupo-Moting, note d. Red.) had been missing from the squad, then I don’t know whether it would have been possible to achieve this performance, then we would have arrived with twelve players,” said Tuchel after the Stuttgart game in view of the record champions’ thin staffing levels. At least Choupo The 50-year-old can now fall back on motoring in January and February.
2023-12-28 11:14:02
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