Stiker Oliver McBurnie says he will return to England next week to mull over his long-term future as he prepares to leave Spanish outfit Las Palmas.
The Scotland international striker has been in talks with Hull City over a free transfer move, and it’s understood he’s keen on the move to the MKM Stadium.
McBurnie signed a three-year contract in Gran Canaria when he left Sheffield United last summer, but there was a relegation release clause which enables him to leave the club on a free transfer after one year.
Las Palmas were relegated earlier this month, and the 28-year-old is returning to England once the La Liga season finishes this weekend, with Los Amarillos playing away in Barcelona at Espanyol in their final outing.
City hope to wrap up a deal for the powerful striker, and he says he’ll discuss his future with his family once the Spanish season comes to an end, and he can escape the high temperatures.
“I’m in Gran Canaria, so we’re basically in Africa over here. No one told me that before I came. I don’t know if we can call it being in Spain. The weather’s much better here than in mainland Spain,” the forward told BBC Radio Sheffield’s Football Heaven ahead of United’s play-off final showdown with Sunderland on Saturday at Wembley.
“We didn’t reach our goal this year, and we didn’t manage to stay up, so my contract has gone from three years to being up again, so I’m a free agent again.
“We have one more game left at the weekend. We play Espanol on Saturday, which is the reason why I won’t be at Wembley (for the play-off final), I’d love to have been there, but then next week I’ll head back home for the summer, and have a couple of weeks with the family.
“It’s been lovely being out here, but at the same time it’s hard being away from the family so much, so I’ll have a couple of weeks with the family, have a think, talk about it with my missus and see what we want to do.”
McBurnie became a bit of a hit on social media recently for his fluent post-match interview in Spanish after scoring in a 3-1 La Liga win over Getafe, and he says getting to grips with the language has been hard, but rewarding and helped add to his experience on the Canary Islands alongside former City target Scott McKenna.
“It’s nice to be a social media viral for something positive, I guess,” he joked. “When I came out here, I made the decision to fully immerse myself in everything. I didn’t want to come out here and go through the motions.
“I really wanted to give myself the best chance of everything, and I think it’d be a waste to come out and not try to learn the language. When I came out, not a lot of people spoke English, so that kind of influenced my decision as well as needing to learn the language, but it’s been great.
“The boys in the team that do speak English have really helped me a lot. Having Scott McKenna there has helped me as well. We’ve kind of been through the same journey at the same time. Some days we feel like we’ve mastered Spanish, and the next day we feel like we don’t know anything at all.
“So it’s been frustrating at times, but I’m really glad I’ve done it. I’ve really enjoyed it and like I said, I can hold my own in conversations now, which I don’t think a lot of people thought I’d be able to do because sometimes I can barely do it in English.”