Derby County beat Championship rivals Nottingham Forest to the signing of Leicester City’s 2016 Premier League champion Andy King in January.
Andy King has admitted that he turned down Nottingham Forest before joining their East Midland rivals Derby County in the January transfer window, as reported by the Derbyshire Telegraph.
King had established himself as a modern-day club legend at Leicester City, helping the Foxes win the Championship title in 2014 before stunning the footballing world as they lifted the Premier League two years later.
But the long-serving Wales international fell out of favour after the appointment of Claude Puel and joined Derby on loan until the end of the season having failed to make a single Premier League appearance for Leicester during the 2018/19 campaign.
Before moving to Pride Park, however, King has admitted that he also had an offer on the table to join Derby’s bitter rivals Forest instead.
“I think the Leicester Forest rivalry was a little more (than the Derby versus Leicester rivalry) and always something I was going to be sensitive of,” the 30-year-old told the Derbyshire Telegraph.
“As it stands, Derbyare in a better position, and maybe play a style of football which is maybe more suited to how I want to play. I spent years at Chelsea as a kid watching the manager (Frank Lampard) play, so that was a big pull for me as well.
“Forest is a great club, also, a massive club but the odds were probably just stacked in Derby’s favour the minute I knew they were interested.”
As it stands, Derby are two places and five points above Nottingham Forest in the table and have a game in hand too.
King made his debut for the Rams in Saturday’s 2-0 win against high-flying Hull City, coming off the bench for the final nine minutes as Martyn Waghorn scored twice.
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