Striker Andi Zeqiri has revealed he had numerous options to leave Brighton and Hove Albion this summer, before finally settling on Genk.
The striker has been speaking to Het Laatste Nieuws after joining the Belgian side in the summer in a €2.7m deal.
He had been with Brighton since 2020 following a €4m move from Lausanne-Sport but barely featured for the Seagulls in his time there.
He instead spent time out on loan, first with FC Augsburg and then FC Basel last season, with the second proving to be more successful than the first.
That led him to look for a permanent move this summer, with him and his agent making it clear throughout that they wanted to leave Brighton and establish themselves elsewhere.
They eventually got that with Genk, who paid €2.7m late in the window to sign the striker and bolster their forward line.
He’s made a good start there with a goal on his debut and has now sat down for a chat with HLN, revealing he could have ended up elsewhere.
“The first contact with Genk dated from the beginning of the summer,” he said.
“But there were many clubs. Oh well, you always read and hear all kinds of things. I leave it to my father and my agents; I focus on what I have to do in the field.
“It went from left to right, not easy at all. You know what it is: as a young player you want to end up at the perfect club quickly, but you have to remain patient.
“I could have signed for a mid-table team in Italy, but then Racing Genk came, and they explained their plans for me, I knew this would be the right club for me, especially at this stage of my career.”
