Celtic are in a hole at the minute.
Wilfried Nancy has now lost his first four matches in charge, leaving many Celtic fans calling for him to be sacked at Tannadice on Wednesday.
After the Premier Sports Cup final against St Mirren, it felt like Celtic’s season couldn’t get any worse – but it did after a second half collapse against Dundee United.
If you rewind back to September, Michel-Ange Balikwisha’s signature had finally been secured by Brendan Rodgers, and he was supposed to be one of the new hopes of Celtic’s attack.
But fast forward four months, and Balikwisha has had a rough season in terms of playing time. On the international level, it could be about to get worse.
Should Wilfried Nancy be sacked?
Celtic’s Michel-Ange Balikwisha could be booted out of World Cup
Sebastian Tounekti, Daizen Maeda and Kieran Tierney are among the Celtic players whose nations have secured their place at next summer’s World Cup.
Of course, Auston Trusty, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston are all automatically qualified as hosts.
READ MORE: Watch Celtic board members squirm yards from furious fans sending them a message at Tannadice
Balikwisha is a Belgian youth international, playing alongside Arne Engels for the Red Devils’ Under-21s.
But shortly after signing for Celtic, he followed in his brother’s footsteps by switching his national allegiance to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The expansion of the World Cup has seen many players declare for non-European nations, given the additional places available to Africa and Asia especially.
Balikwisha is one of many to have joined up with the DR Congo team, and came on as a sub as they shocked Nigeria to advance to the intercontinental play-off.
However, Nigeria have now lodged a formal complaint after the tie, regarding the eligibility of several DR Congo players.
The reason for their complaint is that the Congolese constitution does not recognise dual-nationality, meaning that many of the players do not own Congolese passports.
Nigeria FA’s chief Mohammed Sanusi said: “The Congolese rules say you cannot have dual nationality.
“There are so many of them that have European passports, some of them French passports, some of them Dutch passports, Wan-Bissaka with a British one.
“The rules are very clear. We cannot say anything now but we have submitted our protest to FIFA.
“There are players that got theirs in just three months.
“So there is to us, what is considered as a breach of the regulation. That is why we took that decision.”
Michel-Ange Balikwisha: flop or unfairly treated?
Celtic’s abysmal summer 2025 transfer window
The club’s summer business was so poor that it eventually led to the departure of Rodgers.
Rodgers described Hayato Inamura and Shin Yamada as ‘club signings’, though the suggestion that the pair were signed without the endorsement of the manager was strongly refuted by Dermot Desmond.
Jahmai Simpson-Pusey has still made just one Celtic appearance since joining on loan from Manchester City. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him return to the Etihad in January.
Even Benjamin Nygren and Tounekti, who have both been playing, have caused deep concern with some of their performances.
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