Striker Hwang Ui-jo came close to signing for American club Minnesota United before his move to Nottingham Forest was agreed.
The South Korea international joined the Reds from Bordeaux last month, as one of 22 new arrivals in a busy few months at the City Ground. He immediately went out on loan and will spend the season in Greece with fellow Evangelos Marinakis-owned side Olympiacos.
However, Forest were not the only team interested in Ui-jo this summer. Minnesota also made a push to secure his signature.
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“We did go quite a ways down the line with him,” technical director Mark Watson told Pioneer Press. “His situation was really complicated.”
Park Rapids Enterprise report Bordeaux’s financial issues were a factor in Ui-jo not joining Minnesota. They are said to have seen a $5m (about £4.2m) bid rejected, with manager Adrian Heath reportedly saying it was becoming too big an outlay for the club.
“That factored into it,” Watson said of Bordeaux’s problems. “It was a really big spend. But saying that, we thought he would be a really big addition to the group.”
He added: “We have a lot of discussions. The one thing is we got a ton of names on our list. You don’t really know what the deal is until you get down the line a little bit.”
Ui-jo has made four appearances for Olympiacos so far - all but one of those coming as part of the starting XI. One of those games was against Nantes in the Europa League.
Countryman and Olympiacos teammate Hwang In-beom has said of the forward’s move to Greece: “Before Ui-jo came to Olympiacos, he contacted me. I told him about the very good atmosphere that exists in the team, but also about the excellent facilities that our team has. Being with Ui-jo at Olympiakos will help us a lot in the run-up to the World Cup, as we will improve as a duo and find ways to work better together on the pitch.”
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