Nottingham Forest drops €20M on Portuguese midfielder Gustavo Sá, immediately loans him to Olympiacos

Nottingham Forest just spent roughly €20 million on a 21-year-old attacking midfielder from Famalicão, only to send him on loan to another club for the entire season.

Gustavo Sá, the young captain of Portuguese side Famalicão, has signed with the Premier League club but will spend the 2026/27 season on loan at Olympiacos. Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis also owns Olympiacos. So the player stays in the family, just at a different address.

The multi-club ownership model also raises interesting questions about player valuation. When Forest pays €20M for Sá, they’re essentially pricing a young player’s future output. The loan to Olympiacos generates returns in the form of match experience. Buy low, develop across your network, sell or deploy when value peaks.

The €20M price tag for a 21-year-old captain from a mid-table Portuguese club tells you something about how inflated Premier League transfer spending has become.

The risk, as always, is regulatory. Football governing bodies like UEFA have tightened rules around multi-club ownership, particularly when two clubs in the same network compete in the same European competition.

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