Former Ajax player Steven Bergwijn has hit out at Oranje coach Ronald Koeman for dropping him from the squad because of his move to Saudi Arabia.

Bergwijn has moved to Saudi Arabian club Al-Ittihad for €21 million and the 26-year-old is now out of the national team because of the switch. Georginio Wijnaldum who turns out for Al-Ettifaq is, however, part of the Oranje line-up for the Nations League.

“Wijnaldum at one point went that way because he had a problem at Paris Saint-Germain,” Koeman told a news conference earlier this week. “He could only go to that country to play football. In Bergwijn’s case, he was not led by ambition in terms of sport. The book is basically closed for him.”

“So one player has to leave the Eredivisie to develop and I have to stay?” Bergwijn told the Telegraaf. “The coach knows very well that the Saudi competition is a good standard. Or can I only make such a move when I am 32?”

Koeman, he said, should have phoned him before the television interview and heard his side of the story. “Now I have to learn about it from tv,” he said. “We’ve had some good times but this is the easy way out and I am disappointed in him.”

Oranje will kick of their Nations League campaign on Saturday against Bosnia and Herzegovina. Germany and Hungary complete the Group A line-up.