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Andras Nemeth has explained his reasons for rejecting a January move to Sunderland in favour of Hamburg.

The Hungarian striker was a top target for the Black Cats as they hoped to tempt him to the club on a long-term deal.

However, he opted to join Bundesliga 2 side Hamburg from Genk instead, with him costing the German giants just €670,000.

He scored his first goal for his new club this month in a 2-0 win over Rostock, and he has confirmed the interest from Sunderland was genuine.

"It was very concrete with Sunderland,” he told HSV24.

“But I made the decision to come to Hamburg because I think the project here is better for me and my development.”

It’s not possible to know exactly what Nemeth means by ‘the project,’ but you can certainly understand him plumping for Hamburg.

They are playing in front of 51,000 fans every week and are a club with a huge stature, even if they have struggled of late.

Hamburg can also get Nemeth into one of the top leagues in Europe quicker than Sunderland can too. They are currently second in the table and looking a safe bet for promotion to the Bundesliga this season.

Sunderland are probably a couple of years behind that in terms of how quickly they could have realistically got Nemeth to the Premier League, so while it’s a disappointing decision it is also an understandable one.


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