Roma's Radja Nainggolan feels he deserved a World Cup call, but thanks Belgium Coach Roberto Martinez for telling him personally that he wouldn’t be going.
It was officially confirmed yesterday that the 30-year-old hasn’t been included in the squad, and he immediately announced his retirement from international football.
“I’ve had enough, my goodbye to the Red Devils is now signed,” Nainggolan told HLN.
Roma's Radja Nainggolan feels he deserved a World Cup call, but thanks Belgium Coach Roberto Martinez for telling him personally that he wouldn’t be going.
It was officially confirmed yesterday that the 30-year-old hasn’t been included in the squad, and he immediately announced his retirement from international football.
“I’ve had enough, my goodbye to the Red Devils is now signed,” Nainggolan told HLN.
“I won’t continue to fight, I had already planned to stop if they didn’t let me go to the World Cup.
“It’s true that I considered making myself unavailable for Belgium over the last year but I still hoped I could participate in the World Cup.
“It was a childhood dream and I deserved it, but it’s been taken away from me.
“My agent did not even know that I would announce my goodbye to Belgium, I just wrote what I thought, briefly and without thinking for hours.
“It came straight from the heart. I do not like wearing a mask, I'm who I am, if some people don’t like that I can’t do anything about it.
“I won’t change for them, I’m tired of always being portrayed as a bad boy. Football is still a hobby for me.
“Ok it’s become my job, but I still want to be judged for my performances, not what I do off the pitch. Would we talk differently about [Diego] Maradona for that reason? Everyone is free to do what he wants if he plays well on the pitch.
“Do you think all the players are good guys? I'm not ashamed.
“To be the only player who has not been allowed to go to the World Cup twice in a row, it's such an incomprehensible thing that I can already laugh about it.”
Martinez flew out to Rome to tell Nainggolan of his decision in person.
“He called me around noon to find out where I was, in Belgium or in Rome. When I told him I was in Rome he told me he’d be here about 6.30.
“We met at the Hilton hotel at the airport.
“My first thought was that he wanted to talk to me face-to-face, to make sure I was behaving myself. I called my national teammates to see what they thought, if he was here to give me some rules or say that I wasn’t going to the World Cup.
“I'm sad, I deserved to be there. I got to the Champions League semi-finals and I played well with Roma, I can’t do more than that.
“Four years ago I was not allowed to go to the World Cup, but the decision was not based on my performances, I was still playing at Cagliari.
“The circumstances were different, but since then I’ve spent four years with Roma and played well. I haven’t been rewarded.
“I would like to say that the fact the Coach came to Rome on Sunday I thought was great. I’d have done the same for him, if I have a problem with someone I go to him.
“He started by saying I was a top player with an important role at Rome, that if he was a club Coach he’d build a team around me but he couldn’t do it for the national team, there wasn’t enough time.
“He said I'm too important a player to participate in the World Cup as twentieth man in the team. There are young players who would be happy to enter even for a minute, you wouldn’t be.
“In part I understand his explanation when he talks about a tactical choice. But then I think: what if two central midfielders get injured? Will he put one of the youngsters on?
“He thought I’d behave badly on the bench. I’ve never caused problems on the bench though, I was called-up 39 times and I played 30 games, so I've already been there.
“He tried to call me before he announced his choices to the Press, but I was on a plane. When I landed it was already clear that I wasn’t in the 28. Calling him back wouldn’t have made much sense.
“I won’t be in Russia, a holiday is a holiday. There is only one positive thing about this: I have 5 free weeks, I’ll watch the games on TV. Not least because of the respect I have for my teammates, from the first kick to the last.
“[Eden] Hazard and [Marouane] Fellaini wrote to me to tell me to stay calm, but they understand me. It’s the same for [Dries] Mertens, [Kevin] De Bruyne, [Jan] Vertonghen… I wish them the best, I hope they go as far as possible in the World Cup.
“We have players who can become world champions, why not believe?”