Fabio Borini has lauded Liverpool as 'the best club in the world' but revealed why he took the decision to leave Anfield.
The Italian was signed by Brendan Rodgers in the summer of 2012 but endured an injury-plagued maiden campaign on Merseyside before spending the 2013/14 season on loan at Sunderland.
Returning to Liverpool for the 2014/15 campaign, Borini left the club to sign permanently for the Black Cats in August 2015 after continuing to find his first team opportunities limited with the Reds.
But reflecting on his time at Anfield, the 29-year-old admitted he couldn't say no to a move to the club and has no regrets despite the move not working out.
"I missed England," the striker told Tamsaha.com when explaining why he left Roma to join the Reds just weeks after joining the Serie A club permanently from Parma. "Apart from that, Liverpool is a very good club. In fact, it is the best club in the world for me.
"In my opinion, the team with the highest number of fans in the world… You cannot easily say "No" when such clubs come to you. I had a huge shot for me and I accepted it.
"The reason I (then) switched from Liverpool to Sunderland was because of my desire to be "an important player in a team".
"He is no longer a player in the team; I wanted to be the "O" player in the team. This was the reason I switched from Liverpool to Sunderland."
He continued: "But of course there was a problem here as well, Sunderland was a team that tried to stay in the league at that time. There was 13 points difference between the third from the last. We achieved a great miracle at that time. People there call it "Miracle".
"Because in January, when you are at the lowest point with a difference of 13 points, it is a miracle to achieve this. At that time, I have a goal at Wembley in the cup. We played the final there. It was a good season. It was a difficult season. It was a difficult season due to the level of the Premier League.
"But for me, instead of being just another player in a team, I wanted to be the player of that team, "that player". That was the most important part for me.
"I am really happy with the time I spent there. The happiness and passion of the people there was very important and pleasant to me.
"So once again, after coming back to Liverpool, I couldn't get enough games so I went back to Sunderland.
"I had a few injuries (at Liverpool), but I enjoyed my time there."
