Four Columbus Crew SC Players Called Up to Respective National Teams

Four Columbus Crew SC Players Receive Call-Ups to Respective National Teams

Abu, Afful and Mensah will join Ghana for a 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia on June 11th. They also play friendlies against Mexico and the United States on June 28th and July 1st respectively. Raitala’s Finland team faces Liechtenstein in a friendly on June 7th, followed by a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier at home against Ukraine on June 11th.

Crew SC has a total of four Ghanaian players on the current first team roster. In addition to the aforementioned three, rookie center back Lalas Abubakar also hails from the West African nation. All have seen action for the Black Stars at different age levels, with Abubakar seeing time with the Ghana U-20s. In total, the three players called up have a combined 127 appearances for the senior national team (Afful 71, Mensah 53, Abu 3).

The 28-year-old Raitala has made 37 appearances for Finland during his international career. He most recently started and played the full 90 minutes for the Huuhkajat in a friendly against Austria on March 28th. His last appearance in World Cup qualifying came on November 12th of last year in a 1-0 loss to the same Ukraine team Finland faces this coming Sunday.

The Finns are in Group I of UEFA World Cup qualifying along with Croatia, Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey and Kosova. Croatia currently sit top of the group with Iceland right behind them in second place. Finland finds themselves in fifth place with one point in five matches thus far.

All in all, 12 current Crew SC players have international experience with their respective senior national teams.

Mohammed Abu (Ghana)
Harrison Afful (Ghana)
Ethan Finlay (USA)
Waylon Francis (Costa Rica)
Ola Kamara (Norway)
Cristian Martinez (Panama)
Jonathan Mensah (Ghana)
Justin Meram (Iraq)
Jukka Raitala (Finland)
Rodrigo Saravia (Guatemala)
Zack Steffen (USA)
Wil Trapp (USA)