DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF Congo striker Dieumerci Mbokani said today that he has quit international football after the country’s federation failed to support him following the Brussels terror attacks.
The 30-year-old player, who is on loan at Premier League side Norwich City from Dynamo Kiev, was caught up in the attacks at Brussels’s Zaventem Airport on 22 March.
It meant that he missed DR Congo’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifying double-header against Angola and the Congolese Football Federation (FECOFA) threatened to suspend him as a result.
“I was traumatised. I have no idea why they would want to suspend me,” Mbokani told the BBC. “The Congolese FA president said, ‘Since when do people from DR Congo get traumatised?’ That’s shameful.”
He added: “You can’t imagine a terrorist attack like that. It’s the first time I’ve been through something like this. I gave my reasons for not being able to go — because of the terrorist attack.
“The football federation in DR Congo think I’m lying, that I’m not telling the truth. That’s why I’m going to stop playing for the national team.”
FECOFA president Constant Omari told a French radio station on Monday that Mbokani could face sanctions for missing the games.
The Brussels attacks, which also targeted a metro station, left 32 people dead.
