NICOLAS Raskin has been told he can increase his chances of forcing his way into the Belgium set-up before the Euro 2024 finals next summer if he features in the Champions League this season ahead of Rangers’ opening qualifier tomorrow.
Raskin, the 22-year-old midfielder who joined the Ibrox club in a £1.5m move from Standard Liege back in January, has been invited to train with his renowned national side in the past, but he faces stiff competition for a place in the squad.
Red Devils manager Domenico Tedesco can still deploy the likes of Youri Tielemans, Kevin de Bruyne, Orel Mangala and Aster Vranckx in the middle of the park despite embarking on a major rebuild following a disappointing World Cup in Qatar last year.
Yet, Andreas Hinkel, the former VfB Stuttgart, Sevilla, Celtic and Germany full-back who is now the Belgium assistant, has stressed that Tedesco and his coaching staff are actively monitoring the progress of a number of uncapped players across Europe.
Hinkel admitted that Raskin, who has represented his country at every age-group level and was involved in the European Under-21 Championship finals in Georgia this summer, is somebody whose qualities and potential they are well aware of.
The man who lifted the Premiership and League Cup trophies during the three years that he spent at Parkhead, knows from personal experience just how physically and mentally demanding Scottish football can be.
He believes that the central midfielder, who endeared himself to Rangers supporters with a series of committed and intelligent individual displays in the second half of last season, would be able to make the step up to international football in the future.
However, he has stated that being involved in the group stages of continental competition against the top sides in England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain during the 2023/24 campaign will help Raskin’s cause greatly.
The opportunity to don a red jersey alongside the likes of De Bruyne, Yannick Carrasco, Romelu Lukaku, Tielemens and Jan Vertonghen will be an added incentive for him to perform well ahead of the first leg of the Champions League third qualifying round double header against Servette of Switzerland at Ibrox tomorrow evening.
“I was in Georgia for the European Under-21 Championship in the summer and I watched Nicolas,” said Hinkel. “Belgium went out after the group stages (they drew with the Netherlands and Georgia and then lost to Portugal). But he was involved in all three of their games and he played well in all of them.
“We know all about him. We have Nicolas on our radar because he is a player with the Belgium Under-21 side. We are open, totally open, in general.
“We also know Celtic and we know Rangers. Remember, we played Rangers in the semi-finals of the Europa League when we were with RB Leipzig (when Tedesco was their manager) a couple of seasons ago (Rangers recorded a famous 3-2 aggregate triumph).
“As I say, we are open to anyone. We know the Scottish league is a smaller league than some of those which the members of the Belgium squad play in across Europe, but we genuinely don’t care. We know he is a talent.
“We follow Nicolas closely as we do with all of the young players who have been in the under-21 set-up. We have got a really good mixture of experienced players and young players in the national squad now. He is one of the young players we are looking at.
“If Nico has the opportunity to play European group stage football, either in the Champions League or the Europa League, this season it will help him.”
Belgium are currently in second spot in their Euro 2024 qualifying section after beating Sweden and Estonia and drawing with Group F leaders Austria at home and only the top two teams will progress to the finals in Germany next year.
Tedesco could be forgiven if he puts his faith in players who ply their trade in the Bundesliga, Eredivisie, Premier League, La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A – and he has no shortage of them at his disposal - ahead of a footballer who features in the Premiership.
However, Hinkel, who won 21 caps for his own country during his playing days, recalled how he retained his place in the Germany side after he completed his £2m switch to Celtic back in 2008 and thinks Raskin can stake a claim for a call-up.
“I played for my national team when I was at Celtic,” he said. “Joachim Low, the head coach at the time, selected me for my country on a few occasions.
“I played regularly for Celtic, I played European football, I played in the Champions League. The manager told me that was good enough to be involved.
“We know the Scottish league is quite tough. You have to win when you are at Celtic or Rangers. Everybody thinks playing in Scotland, but I know that every week you have to fight, you have to perform, you have to win.”
Rangers and Celtic endured difficult European campaigns last term; the Ibrox club failed to win a point after qualifying for the Champions League group stages for the first time in 12 years while their Parkhead rivals finished bottom of their section and failed to secure a place in the Europa League knockout round play-off.
However, Hinkel, who played in Europe’s premier club competition for both Stuttgart and Celtic and who helped Sevilla to lift both the UEFA Cup and Super Cup during his stint in Spain, is certain that both of the Glasgow teams are more than capable of making their mark in the coming months.
“There has always been a lot of speculation about Celtic or Rangers moving down to England and joining the Premier League,” he said. “If that happened they would be in a completely different circumstance.
“It is difficult for them to compete with clubs in the major leagues on the continent just now because of the size of the Scottish television deal.
“But I think they have done quite well in recent years. They have signed well, have got good service out of their players and then have sold them to clubs in bigger leagues for a lot of money. They have shown that they can compete against the best in Europe in the past and can do so again this season.”
