Stefan Ristovski, the captain of the North Macedonian national team, refused to play for the national team due to a conflict with the head coach. The defender of Dinamo Zagreb announced that he was temporarily suspending his performances, in particular, in the qualifying tournament for Euro 2024, where the Balkans play in the same group as Ukraine.

Ristovski wrote about this on his Instagram page. The 31-year-old footballer said he disagreed with the national team's development strategy under coach Blagoj Milevski, and that the national team itself was "going in the wrong direction", which made him make a demarche.

"I would like to inform the entire Macedonian public and media that in the interests of the national team, I want to exclude myself from the list of national team players for the coming period. I will be honest and brief. Football is not just about running on a green lawn. To succeed, you have to have a plan, a vision, cohesion, conditions and respect. I have always played and fought for Macedonia with all my heart. I see that something is going wrong in the national team. The relationship between me and coach Milevski is not the best. I wish the players good luck and success in the upcoming matches," Ristovski said.

It is worth noting that the Macedonians beat Malta (2-1), then dramatically lost to Ukraine (2-3) and suffered a fiasco in London in a match with England (0-7) at the start of the Euro 2024 qualifiers.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, Italy's head coach Roberto Mancini sensationally resigned a month before the match against Ukraine in the Euro 2024 qualifiers.

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