Tottenham loanee Mikey Moore has revealed that he had offers to stay in England but wanted to follow in the footsteps of Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sancho by testing himself in the Bundesliga with Cologne.
Moore joined Cologne on a season-long loan this summer and has already underlined his importance to the German outfit by starting in their last three league games.
The hotly tipped 19-year-old had several loan offers on the table after a successful stint with Scottish giants Rangers last season, but chose to step out of his comfort zone and leave England.
Spurs boss Roberto De Zerbi considered keeping Moore, with the Englishman earning minutes off the bench against Brentford and Newcastle in the league before scoring and assisting in the 5-1 demolition of Charlton in the Carabao Cup.
Moore, though, was always expected to leave on loan, with Cologne long-term admirers, and he sealed a move away shortly after Spurs secured an £85million deal for Brazilian winger Savio.
“But for me, the conversations came down to me to pick a team, and I wanted to take myself a little bit out of my comfort zone to go and test myself in a big league and in one of the top five leagues.
“When we were speaking, everyone said that they think it'd be a really good experience for me to experience this type of football.
“I kind of made the decision early that I wanted to take myself out here, and now I just need to push on.”
Moore is looking to push on at Cologne in the hopes of securing regular first-team football back at Spurs, and the teenager admits the move was inspired by the success stories of Bellingham and Sancho, who left England for Borussia Dortmund.
Bellingham and Sancho became England internationals while out in Germany, and Moore says the trust that he has been shown early on was a major reason behind him joining Cologne.
“Over the years, you've seen so many young players come out here, and there's some obviously really, really good examples where some world-class players like Jude Bellingham, Sancho done really well.
“So, yeah, it's a really attractive place to play football, I think, especially for a young attacker. They put real trust in me to trust me to come in and even the amount of game time I've played so quickly on in my kind of Cologne career. It's been nice to have that trust of all the staff and the people in the club.
“So, yeah, I'm already happy with my decision. I think now I can really kick on and kind of make my own story or build my own path in German football.”