Sunday 12 October 2014 16:16, UK
Emre Can has revealed that he turned down the option of returning to Bayern Munich in favour of joining Liverpool.
Having graduated out of the academy ranks at the Allianz Arena, the Germany U21 international was still being closely monitored by Bayern over the summer.
They had included a buy-back option in the deal which took him to Bayer Leverkusen in 2013, but knew they had to wait until 2015 before that clause kicked in.
Rather than wait to discover what their decision would be, Can decided to accept an offer from Liverpool – with his £9.75million release clause triggered by Brendan Rodgers.
A discussion with the Anfield boss convinced the 20-year-old that the Premier League was the right place for him, and he is now finding his feet in new surroundings.
Can said in the Liverpool Echo: “Bayern had a buy-back clause but that didn’t kick in until next year.
“There were some discussions with Bayern this summer but I decided the best thing for me would be to accept the opportunity to come to Liverpool.
“Before I came here I had discussions with Brendan Rodgers and that made my mind up. From those talks I was very positive about this move.
“This whole club is very ambitious and positive about how it wants to play football. That’s the way I want to play football, too.
“Liverpool believe in the same things and that’s why I came here. I want to stay here for a long time.”
