Crystal Palace’s Luka Milivojević didn’t feature for Serbia for over a year after the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
The Eagles midfielder returned to the national team after Ljubiša Tumbaković was appointed as the country’s head coach.
Reports from September 2019 stated Tumbaković travelled to London to convince the 29-year-old and he also received assistance from Fulham’s Aleksandar Mitrović.
Milivojević returned to the Serbia squad in September of that year and missed only two matches until October 2020. He hasn’t featured for his country since then and there have been changes off the pitch.
Tumbaković was relieved from his duties after Serbia failed to qualify for Euro 2020 and Dragan Stojković Piksi was appointed as his permanent successor in February.
“On this occasion, I would like to publicly thank the newly elected coach and wish him luck and success in his further work, which probably unconsciously helped me make the decision I have been thinking about for a long time, and that is to say goodbye to the Serbian national team,” he said.
Milivojević also expressed his disappointment over delaying his decision to retire from the national team.
“I want to tell the people in the Federation, led by the president, that they succeeded to drive me away from the national team,” the Palace player explained.
“I blame myself for not retiring a long time ago, although I saw many things they did.
“I told my teammates and the public about those things, both of them and the president in London personally, but I stayed for the sake of my teammates and the team and I believed that it would be better.
“Let them be honoured for what they did. I wish the Serbian national team a lot of luck and success in the future.”
