Despite an impressive season for AS Roma, Mile Svilar hasn’t been called up by Serbia, and their manager has explained why in dramatic fashion.

The Antwerp-born goalkeeper has made one appearance for Serbia’s national team, but is reportedly still keen on switching to Belgium amid a dispute with FIFA.

Nevertheless, Svilar was still expected to at least get a call up for Serbia, but manager Dragan Stojkovic has explained why he didn’t in dramatic fashion.

“Maybe the public is not well informed and needs to know the truth, so that there are no rumours,” he said.

“I gave him the opportunity to debut with Serbia while he was in the Benfica reserve team. I considered him a goalkeeper with potential.

“After that, he continued to receive calls. At Roma, he was Rui Patricio’s reserve and then he received calls. At a certain point, he decided to do something else, he said that we shouldn’t call him up. And how should we call him if he doesn’t want to?”

He continued: “Then he received invitations from Belgium to defend his national team. It’s a bit strange that he didn’t understand the FIFA rules. Today he can only defend Serbia.

“This season has been excellent for him and it shows that I wasn’t wrong to call him. I can go to Rome for a lunch, for an espresso, but should I go and ask someone for something? It won’t happen. Not Svilar.

“He took the wrong path, it’s his fault. You don’t want to defend for Serbia, you want to go for Belgium? Excellent, best wishes. It’s up to him.

“Maybe his girlfriend [who is Belgian] isn’t very interested in Serbia. Then they told me he wants to dedicate himself to his club. He wants to concentrate, and the roles of goalkeepers are specific.

“Either you take risks or you don’t. He does, and I’m very happy that we have the best goalkeeper in Serie A. This shows that I wasn’t wrong when I called him when he was a reserve at Benfica.”