He was Nottingham Forest's record sale in 2017, now he's been released eight years later
03/22/2025 01:00 PM
Nottingham Forest have been strong in the transfer market as of late, but Evangelos Marinakis deserves just as much credit for his selling as well as his buying.
Marinakis’ biggest sale was Brennan Johnson’s move to Tottenham, earning the City Ground side a cool £47.5m. Johnson was clearly a star player for the club but replacing him with Anthony Elanga who has excelled under Nuno Espirito Santo.
Another excellent sale was Moussa Niakhate’s move to Lyon, adequately replaced by Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic for less than the £26 million fee Forest received.
The next big money sale could well be coming in the summer as Elanga is drawing interest from Newcastle, but Espirito Santo will be aiming to keep hold of his squad with the Reds edging closer to Champions League football.
Forest’s history of selling is one of success, though, including one record departure in 2017 who has just been released from his current side.
Britt Assombalonga released by Amedspor eight years on from Nottingham Forest exit
Since leaving Forest in 2017, 32-year-old Britt Assombalonga has had a mixed time of things over in Turkish football.
Assombalonga signed for Adana Demirspor in 2021 and scored 18 goals in his two years at the club, before returning to English football with Watford in 2022.
Returning to Turkey with Antalyaspor and then moving to Amedspor at the start of this campaign, the Congolese forward hasn’t hit anywhere near the numbers he was hitting at Demirspor, leading to the end of his Turkish journey for the time being.
In a social media post, Amedspor said: “We have parted ways with our professional football player Britt Assombalonga by mutual consent. We thank her for her efforts and wish her success in her career.”
Scoring 30 goals over 65 Forest appearances in the mid-2010s, things haven’t quite gone to plan for Assombalonga since leaving the City Ground but once again, it was another case of Marinakis selling players excellently.
Britt Assombalonga earned Nottingham Forest a club-record fee
Despite Patrick Bamford revealing that Forest could’ve signed Assombalonga for free, the Reds ended up paying £5m for the striker from Peterborough in 2014. It was clearly a worthwhile purchase for the club, but the eventual sale was even better in retrospect.
According to BBC Sport at the time, “Middlesbrough have broken their transfer record to sign striker Britt Assombalonga from Championship rivals Nottingham Forest for £15m. Forest said the fee agreed met a buyout clause in Assombalonga’s contract.”
In his four seasons at the Riverside, Assombalonga made 152 appearances for Middlesbrough but only scored fifteen more goals than he did at Forest, before leaving on a free transfer to Turkey in 2021.
The Forest owner is garnering quite a reputation for himself as an excellent negotiator in the transfer market, with the deal to sell Assombalonga perhaps a the first sign of this in what was the early stages of his ownership.
