MLS star Kacper Przybylko explains why he didn’t join Sunderland

Follow us on Google Discover

League One challengers Sunderland could do with a striker as reliable as Philadelphia Union’s MLS star.

Kacper Przyblyko is in the form of his life right now for Philadelphia Union. And Sunderland must be wondering what might have been with the prolific centre-forward admitting to Przeglad Sportowy that he very nearly joined the Black Cats in the summer of 2018.

With 17 goals in 25 games, Przybylko has fired The Us into second place in the MLS Eastern Conference with just a few games to go in the campaign. If only Sunderland had a striker capable of finding the net with such regularity.

Marc McNulty scored his first Black Cats goal in the 3-1 win at Accrington Stanley on Saturday but life on Wearside isn’t getting any easier for big-money signings Will Grigg or Charlie Wyke.

And Sunderland’s failure to snap up Przyblyko on a free has now been brought into sharp focus.

After being released by Kaiserslautern, he had a brief trial at Sunderland last year. And the German-born, 6ft 4ins targetman admitted on Instagram that it was an ‘honour’ to be given a chance by one of the sleeping giants of English football.

But now, a year on, it seems that we have finally found out why Przybylko never became a Sunderland player. It seems that it was all his own decision.

“They checked me in at Sunderland, I spent a week or 10 days there and liked it. But they wanted to continue testing me. I didn’t want tests anymore, I just missed playing football,” he said.

“I decided on Philadelphia. I also liked the fact that while everyone was worried about my leg, they immediately said that everything is OK, I just need to get back in shape.”

You can hardly blame Sunderland for wanting to make sure that Przybylko was fit and firing, ready to make an immediate impact in the first team. After all, the Black Cats have made far too many disastrous signings in recent years and they really didn’t need another ill-fitting flop on their books.

But with Przyblyko producing five goals and three assists in his last six MLS games, Sunderland fans could be forgiven for wishing they’d signed him on a free rather than spending big on Grigg and Wyke.