Odsonne Edouard earns first France under-21 call-up

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Celtic forward Odsonne Edouard has been rewarded for his fine club form with a call-up to the France under-21 squad.

Head coach Sylvain Ripoll has included the Hoops youngster as part of his 21-man squad for the upcoming friendly matches against Albania and the Czech Republic.

Both matches will be played in France on September 5th and 9th respectively meaning that Edouard should have plenty of chance for game time. The forward will be one of four strikers vying for a starting spot ahead of the upcoming qualifiers for the UEFA Under-21 Championships in 2021.

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Edouard may already be 21-years-old but he will qualify to play for the French side all the way until the summer of 2021. However, the news isn’t as good for Moussa Dembele and Olivier Ntcham who can now no longer be part of the squad as they’re too old.

The former is on the fringes of the full setup after a terrific first season at Lyon, but he is still to earn his first senior call-up and hasn’t been included in Didier Deschamps’s squad for their upcoming matches.

France call-up can only help Edouard

The call-up is Edouard’s first since he played for the French under-19 side more than two years ago. The prolific frontman netted three goals in six games for that side and also has a handful of goals for the under-17 side.

The step-up to 21s international level is likely to be a big one for Edouard but he will back himself to do the business against slightly older and wiser players. He will look at what his former teammate Dembele managed to do and think he can achieve the same level of success.

It seems like a matter of time before the £9million man departs Glasgow for a new challenge. When he does we can only hope he goes after scoring some more big goals and helping us win some more silverware.

The average shelf life of a top Celtic player has been around two seasons over the past decade or so. Victor Wanyama, Virgil Van Dijk and Moussa Dembele all gave around that before moving on for big money. Edouard has played one season since moving permanently. That suggests that we may be getting used to life without him this time next year.