Former Black Stars winger Laryea Kingston states that coach Milovan Rajevec decision to drop him ahead of the 2010 World Cup which was held in South Africa killed him.
“Milo [Milovan Rajevac] killed me,” he said in a Prime Take interview with Muftawu Nabila Abdulai on the Joy News Channel.
“He killed me because I thought that was my last tournament for the national team.”
“I was ageing and wanted to focus on my club career because I had done a lot for the national team and it was time to give others the opportunity, so after that tournament, I have achieved everything there is as a player which is the World Cup, so I wanted to focus the little energy I have on my club career, that was the mindset,"
“Also, my contract [with Hearts] was running out; I had six months left and they were offering me a contract [extension] but with a pay cut because their budget had dropped,"
“So, my thinking was that if I go to the World Cup, one game could raise my value, so I was waiting to go to the World Cup and get a better offer. I was dropped, I came back and that contract was no longer on the table,” he revealed.
Laryea Kingston, considered one of the top players on the senior national team, was suddenly left out of the Black Stars camp in France in 2010 before the Mundial in South Africa.
Laryea Kingston who is now a Uefa License B coach made 41 appearances and scored six goals for the senior national team the Black Stars from 2002 to 2010.
The former talented winger played for Accra Hearts of Oak, Accra Great Olympics, Vitesse, Hapoel Be'er Sheva, Krylia Sovetov Samara, Heart of Midlothian, Terek Grozny, among others.