Champion with ‘great qualities’ welcomes £5m Nottingham Forest move

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Fode Ballo-Toure wants to Leave Serie A champions AC Milan with Nottingham Forest in talks to make the Senegal international their latest Premier League acquisition, according to Calciomercato.

The champagne must have tasted somewhat bittersweet as Stefano Pioli’s youthful Rossoneri side secured the club’s first Scudetto in more than a decade last season. 

Ballo-Toure played a minimal role, starting just five times across 2021/22. If Rafael Leao, Sandro Tonali and Mike Maignan were Milan’s leading men, Ballo-Toure was little more than a background extra.  

With a World Cup on the horizon, the 25-year-old understandably wants more lines and a bigger slice of the screen time. Nottingham Forest can offer him that.  

Will Fode Ballo-Toure leave AC Milan for Nottingham Forest?

According to Calciomercato and Foot Mercato, Forest are in talks with Ballo-Toure’s representatives. The former Monaco man would ‘welcome’ a move to the City Ground, and Milan are unlikely to stand in his way having slapped a bargain £5 million price-tag on the defender’s head.

Galatasaray, CM adds, have made a move of their own. But the ambitious Turkish giants – who have signed the likes of Dries Mertens, Leo Dubois and Lucas Torreira this summer – only want Ballo-Toure on loan with an option-to-buy. An offer neither Milan nor the player himself are overly enamoured with. 

“He needs to play. He has great athletic abilities,” Rossoneri director Paolo Maldini said last term.

“Ours is a maturation process that began two years ago. But for many players it’s a first-time experience at these levels.” 

Ballo-Toure wouldn’t be the first player to struggle during a difficult debut season at a European giant. But the chance to play regularly again, in the run up to Qatar, is an opportunity he obviously feels he cannot turn down. 

Should he arrive at Forest, Ballo-Toure could fill Moussa Niakhate’s shoes in the left-sided centre-back role. Niakhare is out for a number of months with a thigh injury. Ballo-Toure can also play in a more attack-minded wing-back role if required.