AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -Netherlands international Steven Bergwijn has hit back at coach Ronald Koeman after being told his move to Saudi Arabia would result in him no longer being considered for the Dutch team.
Koeman said earlier this week that Bergwijn’s move from Ajax Amsterdam to Saudi club Al-Ittihad had cost him a place in the Dutch squad for the Nations League clashes against Bosnia on Saturday and Germany next Tuesday.
“The book is basically closed to him. He knows what I think about this,” Koeman told a press conference on Tuesday. “When you are 26 (years old), your main ambition should be sporting, not financial. These are choices that players make.”
An unhappy Bergwijn, who had a stint at Tottenham Hotspur and has 35 caps for the Netherlands, said he wants nothing more to do with the coach.
“I am done with someone who deliberately portrays me like that in the media,” he told Dutch daily De Telegraaf on Friday. “That’s not how you treat your own players.
“The national coach knows very well that the competition in Saudi Arabia is at a great level. Or are you only allowed to take such a step when you are 32?” he asked.
Bergwijn said he was surprised by Koeman’s critical statements during the press conference. “If he had been a committed national coach, he would have called me first. Then he would have been able to hear my side of the story. Now I had to hear it on TV. How can you say such things without having spoken to me? We have also experienced great moments in the past, but now I am disappointed with him.”
Koeman had another press conference on Friday, ahead of the match against Bosnia, and said he had not read Bergwijn’s reaction but conceded it was expected.
“I don’t want to talk about it. It doesn’t affect me at all. I talked about sporting ambition and I don’t think I said much more than that,” Koeman replied to reporters’ questions.
“If I had said that I think it was a sporting step, that would have been unbelievable. Let’s not make it bigger than it is. I said something that I back up.”
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Toby Davis and Christian Radnedge)
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