{"id":3960,"date":"2014-05-09T00:17:12","date_gmt":"2014-05-09T00:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/?p=3960"},"modified":"2014-05-09T00:17:12","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T00:17:12","slug":"on-loan-liverpool-striker-wants-to-extend-stay-at-sunderland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/football\/on-loan-liverpool-striker-wants-to-extend-stay-at-sunderland\/","title":{"rendered":"On-Loan Liverpool Striker Wants To Extend Stay At Sunderland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fabio Borini has admitted he could return to the Stadium of Light next season.<\/span><\/p>\n

The on-loan Italian is due to return to Liverpool next week after playing a key role in the Black Cats’ astonishing escape from relegation.<\/p>\n

Manager Gus Poyet has already admitted he would love to sign the 23-year-old striker on a permanent basis.<\/p>\n

And while the chances of that happening looked remote with Sunderland apparently doomed to relegation, their remarkable revival has opened the door again.<\/p>\n

Much depends on Liverpool’s stance and with a Champions League campaign ahead of them, Reds boss Brendan Rodgers knows he must bolster his squad in all departments.<\/p>\n

Borini himself refuses to give up on his Anfield career after an injury-ravaged first season there.<\/p>\n

But he knows he currently faces an impossible task to break up the Luis Suarez-Daniel Sturridge partnership.<\/p>\n

Now he admits a second year on loan at Sunderland could be on the cards.<\/p>\n

“Anything is possible,” said Borini, whose stunning goal in Wednesday’s 2-0 win over West Brom clinched the Black Cats’ fourth successive win and guaranteed survival.<\/p>\n

“It depends on what Liverpool say. They will need a bigger squad because you can’t play in four competitions with the same 11 players.<\/p>\n

“But I’ve enjoyed every second here.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnything is possible, it depends on what Liverpool say\u201d\u00a0Borini said.<\/p>\n

“It’s been great from the fans, the city and everyone at Sunderland, the love and friendship that they have given me throughout the season has been incredible.”<\/p>\n

Borin, along with Black Cats’ team-mate Emanuele Giaccherini, still harbours hopes of earning a place in Italy’s World Cup squad.<\/p>\n

But despite Sunderland spending most of the campaign fighting for their lives at the foot of the table, he insists the past nine months have improved him both as a footballer and as a person.<\/p>\n

“I have always thought I was a Premier League player and this season, I have been injury-free and proved I can play here,” said Borini, whose nine goals include the opener in the Capital One Cup final defeat to Manchester City at Wembley.<\/p>\n

“After being injured last year, I’ve played around 40 games.<\/p>\n

“It’s the hardest season I’ve ever had because we’ve been constantly fighting, but this builds your character and makes you stronger.<\/p>\n

“You learn how to suffer and how to get out of hard situations. Now I am ready for anything.”<\/p>\n

Borini won his one and only Italian cap more than two years ago but hasn’t given up on a recall.<\/p>\n

He added: “Italy are always monitoring their players and the national boss will know all my statistics.<\/p>\n

“I really hope I go to the World Cup because it would be a fantastic achievement after playing for Sunderland.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fabio Borini has admitted he could return to the Stadium of Light next season. The on-loan Italian is due to return to Liverpool next week after playing a key role in the Black Cats’ astonishing escape from relegation. Manager Gus Poyet has already admitted he would love to sign the 23-year-old striker on a permanent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,80],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3961,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions\/3961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}