Fredrik Hammar had a two-year stint at Brentford between 2019 and 2021.
The Swede played only once for the Bees’ first-team but he was knocking on the door, having done well for their reserves side during that period.
Injuries had hindered his progress at Brentford but the midfielder, who is now at Belgian club Mechelen, has stated that he was offered a new deal by the London club but rejected it.
He told Fotbollskanalen’s podcast Lundh, when asked about what he lacked as a player back then:
“If you look at Brentford’s team today, I think most of the squad was in the Championship. The player I was going to compete with was Christian Norgaard, who is now their captain in the Premier League. The level of the squad was very high in the Championship and in order for you to break in, you have to take someone’s place.
“I was good enough to be on the bench, but then Norgaard played 90 minutes every match. I also competed with Josh Dasilva and Mathias Jensen, who both have 200-300 games in Brentford today.”
Reflecting on his decision to reject the offer of a new deal from Brentford, Hammar stated:
“I’ve always gone with my gut feeling, like when I changed Brommapojkarna to Akropolis, but then I got a three-year offer and five times more money than if I were to go back to Sweden.
“Brentford wanted to extend. When I think back today I think: ‘Have I considered turning down this money and going home instead?'”
The midfielder revealed that he rejected the deal because he didn’t want to be loaned to clubs in the lower divisions and this encouraged him to join Acropolis.
“It was great money back then. But I felt that I didn’t want to go on loan to League Two and get stuck there. Then suddenly I would be 23-24 and just playing non-league football in England.
“So I’ll start going home and looking for a club then. I saw several players who had been in Brentford B and when you see what has happened to them today, they are playing non-league or they have stopped playing football.”
Speaking further about the decision, the 24-year-old stated: “I was terrified of being forgotten at some League One or League Two club and getting stuck on the bench.
“Then I decided on Acropolis, who had been flying in the Super League the year before and who invested heavily in me, Daniel Larsson, Astrit Ajdarevic and Oscar Pettersson. They called and I thought I’d play there for six months.”
Hammar doesn’t seem to regret the decision to leave Brentford and since then he has played for not just Mechelen and Acropolis but Hammarby as well.
He has been a regular at all those clubs and it shows that the decision to leave Thomas Frank’s side at a young age wasn’t a bad one.
All in all, the Swede seems happy with the decision he made and that is all that matters.
