“I asked only for three days to see my family because I hadn’t seen them for four months, and they refused, but I decided I would pay the penalty and go anyway,” Damjanovic told the Post. “I was ready to pay the punishment from the club under my contractual conditions and take unpaid leave.

“I did the same in March last year, when they gave me three days off. I paid that. But this time they said I couldn’t do that and they punished me a really big amount of money. I told them I wouldn’t accept that.

“They were quiet for two months, they didn’t say anything about it because it was an important part of the season and they needed me. Because I’m professional – even if we are fighting, I will do my job.

“We were winning, I was scoring goals and everything was OK. But in February, in my opinion, after they found a new striker, they thought they could punish me. They cut my salary without any approval and I told them I would send them to Fifa.

“So for the last two months, the club was angry with me because I said I would go to Fifa. All that happened after was because of that. They started to cut my win bonus. Why are you cutting this when I played for 90 minutes?”

Damjanovic last played for Kitchee against Tai Po on March 19 and, despite not being injured, he did not feature in a tense run-in that saw the club pip Lee Man to the league title before going on to win the FA Cup to complete a domestic treble.

The dispute brought a bitter end to a stint at the club that began in January 2021, when he arrived with a stellar reputation as one of Asian club football’s leading goalscorers.

He had netted regularly for South Korea sides FC Seoul, Suwon Bluewings and Daegu FC in the ACL, as well as Chinese Super League outfit Beijing Guoan, and joined Kitchee two goals adrift of Lee Dong-gook’s continental record.

The former Montenegro international eclipsed that mark in June that year with his 38th goal in the competition in a 2-1 loss to Japan’s Cerezo Osaka, and 12 months later was instrumental as Kitchee qualified for its knockout rounds for the first time.

By the time he left Kitchee, that tally had reached 42. He was also the leading scorer in the Hong Kong Premier League in both 2020-21 – despite joining midway through the season – and 2022-23.

Damjanovic initially aired his grievance last week on Twitter, claiming bonuses due from Kitchee’s ACL campaign had not been paid by club owner Ken Ng Kin.

“I was part of the team who won [the] treble this season … and made a historic result in the ACL,” he wrote. “After all that, club owner Mr Ken decided not to pay me bonuses for titles and still [owes] me part for [the] ACL campaign. It’s my mistake I trusted him and didn’t put anything on paper! Great lesson for me.”

Kitchee responded in a statement published on Friday, saying all monies had been “distributed to all players”, that bonuses were “discretionary” and there was “no outstanding amount due to Dejan”.

Damjanovic subsequently denied to the Post that he had received what he was owed.

“Dejan continues to have a dispute with the club with letters from his lawyer since Easter,” the Kitchee statement said. “We have written to his lawyer providing him with the details of the incident in question, including his unauthorised absence from training for his personal holiday in Europe.

“We look forward to resolving any misunderstanding soon, but so far no progress has been made.”

That dispute is now set to be dealt with by Fifa as Damjanovic instructs his legal representatives to send the relevant documents to the Zurich-based governing body on Monday.