Niclas Fullkrug admits he ‘could have gone’ to a Premier League team before joining Borussia Dortmund over the summer while seemingly hinting at interest from West Ham United.
The Germany international is, in many ways, what Dortmund thought they were getting with Anthony Modeste 12 months earlier. An experienced, powerhouse Bundesliga number nine arriving with a proven track record in German football.
While Modeste flopped, however, Niclas Fullkrug has thrived.
Last season’s Golden Boot winner has two goals and an assist in his last four games for Edin Terzic’s side, justifying Dortmund’s £13 million investment at a time in which Sebastien Haller appears to have misplaced his shooting boots.
West Ham were keen on Niklas Fullkrug
Speaking to BILD, the late-blooming, old-fashioned number nine admits that he turned down Premier League interest in favour of a fresh start in yellow-and-black. And while he was reluctant to name the English-based club in question, all the signs point to West Ham.
“For me, it was clear. If I make a move, it has to be one where I feel a tingle in my stomach,” the former Werder Bremen talisman explains.
“I could have gone to England, for example, to a club that plays on the European stage. But I didn’t feel that tingle to leave Werder Bremen for them.
“I had to be very patient. It was only in the last week of the transfer window that BVB made an offer for me. I immediately felt a tingle with BVB. And I told (sporting director Sebastien Kehl) that I am convinced BVB needs me, and I also need BVB.”
Fullkrug didn’t get ‘the tingle’ for West Ham
A Premier League club who ‘plays on the European stage’?
Of the eight English clubs who qualified for continental competition in 2022/23, only one showed an interest in Fullkrug over the summer – David Moyes’ West Ham, who returned to the Europa League after triumphing over Fiorentina in the Conference League final in June.
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