“I preferred the DRC to Belgium because…”, Théo Bongonda on his selection choice

The Congolese international, Théo Bongonda, returned to his selection choice, although he was also eligible to play with the Belgium team. And the Red Devil assured not to regret his choice to wear the colors of the DRC.

Théo Bongonda has undergone a remarkable transition, moving from the Belgian Espoirs national team to the Congolese national team since February 2022. The striker has already scored 2 goals in 7 caps for his new team.

In a recent interview with Nieuwsblad, the man who previously played for Belgium’s U19 and U21 teams shared his thoughts on his international journey, ensuring that he never considered having a chance with the Belgian selection, notably under the direction of Roberto Martinez.

“With Roberto Martinez, I would never have been called up anyway. I scored 16 goals with Genk, and I wasn’t even on the reserve list” , did he declare. Despite this, Théo Bongonda does not regret his decision to join the Democratic Republic of Congo. “ They like me a lot there. Last month I scored against Sudan which helped us qualify for the African Cup. There were 100,000 people in the stadium – even though the capacity is only 80,000 – and they chanted my name. I had goosebumps. »

Bongonda believes he made the best choice for his international career by highlighting a known fact in football: “Sometimes you get called up for Belgium for a while, but then you never get called up again, which means you can’t play for another country. This is what happened to Pelé Mboyo, Zakaria Bakkali, Anthony Limbombe. They could have played for another country too. »