Report: 20-year-old Liverpool player refuses to join up with his national team, will no longer represent them

Add as preferred source on Google

Liverpool forward Fabio Carvalho refused to join up with the Portugal U21 squad after receiving a call-up this month.

As per fpf.pt, the Portuguese equivalent of the FA, Carvalho has decided to ‘give up’ representing his country’s U21 team.

The Liverpool player had reportedly been called up to play against the Czech Republic and Japan. However, Carvalho is said to have communicated via text that he no longer wishes to be part of the set-up.

The 20-year-old is also eligible to play for England, having featured for the Three Lions at U16, 17 and 18 level.

Having switched his allegiance at U21 level, it had been expected that Carvalho would soon play for the Portuguese senior side. His next move now looks uncertain.

Carvalho fully focused on Liverpool

This is a really interesting bit of news as Liverpool break up for the World Cup.

Carvalho had previously stated his dream of breaking into the full Portugal set-up for the tournament in Qatar.

But, despite a decent start at Liverpool, that was never really going to happen. Liverpool’s No.28 did make Fernando Santos’ 55-man longlist for the squad, but that was as good as it got for him.

Now, there will be doubt as to whether or not he’ll ever play for the senior side.

Instead, perhaps Carvalho has his eyes on a place in the team of his adoptive country. Having moved to England as an 11-year-old, he has spent a large portion of his life here.

Having linked up with former schoolmate Harvey Elliott at Liverpool, maybe Carvalho is dreaming of playing for the national side with his old pal.

For that to happen, both players will have to navigate past some serious competition. But given their relatively high profiles, it’s certainly possible.

That’s all to come, though. For now, all we know for certain is that Carvalho doesn’t plan on playing for the Portugal U21 side any time soon. What that means for the future we’ll soon find out. Today though, it means his full focus is on Liverpool, and that can only be a good thing.

Keep up to date with all the latest Liverpool news and opinion by following Rousing The Kop’s official Facebook page