“That's why, 100%. It doesn't seem normal to me”

The former right midfielder played 57 games for Romania, the last on November 14, 2017. He then ticked off 27 minutes against the Netherlands, in a friendly lost 0-3. The selector at Torje's last match under the tricolor was Cosmin Contra, who had taken over the national team two months ago. Christoph Daum had been on the bench before him.

In September 2017, after the departure of the German at the helm of the national team, before Contra's mandate, Torje offered harsh statements on TV. As he now claims, these led to his subsequent non-call-up from the national team.

The former international caught two more matches for Romania after the attack on the methods used by Daum, the friendlies with Turkey and the Netherlands, under the command of Contra, who was then in his first games as a selector.

Gabi Torje: “Since then I haven't been called up to the national team”

“It is a statement that I gave, and since then I have not been called up to the national team. That's why, 100%. So, I had been summoned, and a mental coach had come there. He made us get off the bus, pull a rope, to see that not one person can move it, but about 15 people.

That's what group strength means. A symbolic thing, yes. Then, at the next convocation, when I wasn't there, I was called to talk about it. I said that it doesn't seem normal to me at this level to make the players pull the coach with a string, to show them something like small children.

This was not about the coaches, about the seconds, but about what was being done… There are things that some can understand, others can't. I think that most of the players agreed with me, they just didn't say it,” said Torje, according to digisport.ro.

• Torje made his national team debut in 2010, in a 1-1 draw with Albania, under the command of Răzvan Lucescu. He played in all 3 matches of the “tricolors” at EURO 2016.

• Throughout his career, he played for CFR Timisoara, Poli Timisoara, Dinamo, Udinese, GGranada, Espanyol, Konyaspor, Osmanlispor, Terek Grozny, Karabukspor, Sivasspor, AE Larisa, Bandirmanspor, Farul, Genclerbirligi, Chiajna, Câmpulung.

Gabriel Torje, in the match against Switzerland at EURO 2016/ PHOTO Imago Images

What Torje said in 2017

“Daum didn't like players with personality, those who always have a word to say, I'm not referring to sports personality, I'm referring to those who still talk a little.

I mean, if you still like to make a joke, to talk at a training session, it's not good. He didn't like those kind of players and eliminated them one by one. He wanted players who didn't say anything, who kept their heads down, there was silence in the dressing room, no one spoke and we lived by rules we hadn't lived by before.

At one point, he got us off the coach to pull a coach. 5 each, then everyone. At one point I said: “yes, sir, we are 5-year-old children to do this, to pull buses, this is done in kindergarten”, Torje said in September 2017.