Leicester City loanee Ayoze Perez made at the weekend his debut for Real Betis, as he was able to play for a few minutes in the 3-4 loss to Celta de Vigo.
After the match, he had a word with the local media and talked about the transfer which took place in the final days of the January window.
Ayoze, who had been of little use for Leicester City this season, made it clear that Betis manager Manuel Pellegrini had a very important role in the transfer, claiming he needed a club where he’d have more minutes on the pitch.
“One hundred percent, coming to Betis has always been my priority since I had contact with Manuel (Pellegrini). At this point in my career it is very important to have that support from the coach and, obviously, also because of all that it means for me sportingly,” said Ayoze Perez (via Estadio Deportivo).
“At this point in my career, such an important move, I needed to feel the coach’s support and desire to have me in his team. For me that was the main thing beyond the details of the contract. He wanted me here and that caught my attention. It was the trigger to come here.”
With Villarreal reportedly joining the tussle to sign him, Ayoze admitted that the Yellow Submarine indeed made an attempt to land him from Leicester City, but he didn’t want to give many details about that.
“They were hours of great tension, I’m not going to lie. At times it was very complicated, but I insist that it was my priority and, after many hours of tension and uncertainty, we managed to come.
“I’m not going to hide it. There were contacts with Villarreal, who also showed a lot of interest in signing me, but I always made my people see that my priority was Betis.”
The player also talked about his future, since his contract with Leicester City expires at the end of the season, and as a free agent, he could just choose to stay at Betis. But he didn’t want to make that commitment right now.
“I came until the end of the season, I don’t think about what will happen after. Right now I only focus on being well, on contributing to the team in all possible aspects and, between now and the summer, there will be time to think about all those things.”
