Celtic winger Liel Abada is to earn a recall back into the Israel squad under new manager Alon Hazan tomorrow, according to Sport 5.
The Israeli outlet has claimed that the national team squad for the upcoming Nations League fixtures will be announced tomorrow. And Hazan is set to bring Abada into the squad in place of Maccabi Haifa’s Omar Noble or Maccabi Tel-Aviv’s Gabi Kanichowsky respectively.
Sport 5 report that even when he was assistant to Andy Herzog and Willibald Ruttensteiner, Hazan was constantly encouraging them to call Abada up. It was reportedly his belief that Liel should’ve been integrated into the game to help build for the future.
Abada has been in scintillating form for Celtic in his debut campaign. Yet, despite scoring 15 goals and bagging 11 assists, he was barely utilised in the Israel team this season. He was given 4 cameo outings against Faroe Islands (x2), Moldova, and Austria respectively before being dropped to the under-21s.
Abada stated back in March that he wasn’t particularly satisfied with having to drop back down to under-21 football. Thankfully, it looks as though that’s about to change ahead of the June fixtures.
Israel will tackle a 3-game schedule as they take on Albania in between 2 games against Iceland. Abada will be hoping to play a starring role.
Liel Abada ready for bigger Israel role under new manager
Abada has been absolutely sensational at Celtic Park since his £3.5m move from his homeland last summer [Scottish Sun].
Then again, when you see the competition for places in the forward ranks of the Israeli squad, it’s understandable why he’s been missing out. Competing with the likes of Manor Solomon, Eran Zahavi, and Munas Dabbur certainly isn’t easy.
Not one of those 3 appear to be going anywhere anytime soon. But even so, Abada has still earned a lot more opportunities than he’s been given under previous managers.
It helps Liel being involved in the UEFA Champions League next season too. You can absolutely see that bolstering his stock and providing him, as a reward, with even more minutes at international level.
Hopefully, Hazan sticks to his beliefs and throws Liel a bone next month. He certainly merits a lot more game-time than he’s been seeing with Israel.
All the best to him should his call-up be confirmed tomorrow.
In other news, Celtic-linked Taylor Harwood-Bellis left Man City stars “blown away” at just 17
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