FSV Mainz midfielder Nadiem Amiri has revealed he turned down Leeds United in the summer because of family reasons.
The midfielder has been speaking to Watson in Germany about what transpired in the summer and the false media reports that have followed since.
He joined Mainz in January of this year from Bayer Leverkusen in a €1m deal after falling down the pecking order at the German club under Xabi Alonso.
He had been extremely close to a move away last summer for the same reason, with Leeds pushing hard to get him as they rebuilt under Daniel Farke.
Numerous reports made it clear that the German coach was a big fan of the 27-year-old and it had looked like a move to Elland Road would go through when the player travelled to England to meet with the club.
However, it all quickly fell apart, with Amiri never signing on the dotted line and instead heading back to Germany, where he remained with Leverkusen until January.
Various reports since have tried to explain what happened, with Amiri copping much of the blame and being presented as something of a mercenary.
He wants to set the record straight, though, and insists it was family reasons which stopped him joining Leeds and nothing more.
“Leeds really wanted me. They made me a brutal offer and asked me to just take a look at everything on site. But I couldn’t really imagine it, especially for family reasons,” he said.
“When I was there, I was supposed to sign straightaway that day, even though it wasn’t agreed upon.
“A lot of what you read in the media afterwards wasn’t true. There was not back and forth with the acceptances and rejections, I was clear about that from the start.
“It was disappointing that afterwards everyone thought I was the bogeyman – it shows that there is a lot going on behind the scenes that the public doesn’t even notice, and in the business, people sometimes forget that we are people and not commodities.”
