Aston Villa's Christian Benteke Named to Belgian Squad

It always gets lost in the excitement of another Premier League season but it's international friendly time. And who isn't excited about pointless matchups with nothing but negative ramifications? I am certainly not. Three short days before Aston Villa open their season against Arsenal, the club's born again Belgian striker Christian Benteke has been called up to play for his country as they take on France in a friendly.

This news is according to John Chapman who famously destroyed Benteke day after day on his Twitter feed upon the forward's move to England calling it premature among other things. Every time Benteke scored people made sure to remind Chapman and other Belgian experts who doubted Benteke and it was pretty glorious to watch. I hope it was really annoying and that it burns Chapman's fingers to even type his name.

We haven't seen anything official yet on the full Belgium squad but Benteke is a lock to be on every one of theirs for the near future. Let's hope everyone gets through these games unscathed.

UPDATE: The official Belgian football site has released the squad and Benteke is in it.