Former West Ham United midfielder Pablo Fornals admits he was “crying like I’ve rarely cried” ahead of his January move to Real Betis.

The Spaniard joined West Ham in the summer of 2019 from Villarreal and quickly became a fan favourite, largely thanks to his infectious personality and complete commitment on the field.

The 28-year-old played a key role for the Hammers during their run through to the 2022/23 Conference League final, scoring a tremendous breakaway goal that killed off AZ Alkmaar in the second leg of the semi-final clash. But, after seeing his minutes marginalised by David Moyes, Fornals became unsettled at London Stadium.

Increasingly homesick and wanting to play more, Fornals eventually became a primary transfer target for Betis and Manuel Pellegrini – the manager West Ham had in charge when he arrived in east London – before sealing a move on deadline day at the start of this year.

Appearing as a guest on the Offsiders podcast (via Estadio Deportivo), Fornals has now opened up on how his return to Spain came about and the emotions he went through as the deal almost fell through.

“In the Premier League, I had fulfilled a dream, but when you are no longer so happy when you get home, they notice it too. My son had a hard time adapting to the school there… We saw that it was time to leave and how lucky we were to arrive at Betis,” Fornals said.

“I arrived one day, and they told me that they had signed me for another year. That’s it, I saw myself there another year; but at Christmas offers came and we wanted to return to Spain. I fulfilled my contract at the end of last season, but in England the clubs have the option to extend it for another year unilaterally, which in Spain is illegal without negotiating.

He continued: “The Betis thing happened, but it almost didn’t happen. The transfer did not arrive, West Ham made a mistake in some information and the operation was not completed, the same thing happened to Benhrama and me,” Fornals explained.

“It didn’t agree with the data that Betis sent, and it wasn’t done. It’s already been 2 February, with the market closed, because UEFA allows it. It was shown that there was no bad faith, just an error and in the application, it was seen that West Ham tried to replicate the data 10 or 11 times.

“I was at the stadium, there had been a match that day. It was 11pm. I said goodbye to my teammates, the coach made a beautiful speech, we were all excited, hugging each other, and I was crying like I’ve rarely cried in my life… and it was [12am] without the signing being completed, so in theory I had to train the next day with West Ham. Fortunately, UEFA saw that the numbers worked out and authorised it.”

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