Nottingham Forest and Tottenham linked Ruslan Malinovskyi stuns PSG

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Nottingham Forest were linked with a move for Ruslan Malinvskyi in the summer and again in January. Last night, he upset the French champions, scoring the winner for Marseille as they defeated PSG in the Coupe De France.

Malinovskyi went on the cheap in the end. He rejected the advances of Forest and Tottenham to sign for Marseille in a deal worth £8 million, with a further £1.5 million in add-ons.

The former Atalanta star was seeing his contract run down in Serie A. An ex-teammate of Remo Freuler’s, it was felt for a long time in the summer that Forest might hold the aces with regards to signing him.

Malinovskyi is something of a left-footed wizard. He’s renowned for his ability to strike the ball and is a magical player, particularly when it comes to taking a set piece.

The 29-year-old has scored just three goals this season; two with Marseille and one whilst he was still with Atalanta. He will know that more is to come and last night he silenced PSG with a goal to cap a fine performance.

Marseille moved into the quarter-final after Malinovskyi scored in the 57th minute. A resolute defensive display following and PSG will have to settle for Ligue 1 and possibly Champions League glory this season.

Forest-linked Malinovskyi steals the show for Marseille

The hopes of signing Malinovskyi have now evaporated. It’s no surprise that he was targeted to help Freuler settle, with the Reds doing that with several other new additions.

At 29, perhaps the club felt other options were more suited to Steve Cooper’s squad. Essentially Malinovskyi would replace either Brennan Johnson or Morgan Gibbs-White in the team and that was never going to happen.

Still, the left-footed player is a fine performer. During his time at Atalanta, he became a bit of a star when it comes to free-kicks; with 16 of his 30 goals for the club coming from direct free-kicks.

Forest couldn’t convince Malinovskyi to join them during the recent transfer windows. Now, they will hope he doesn’t prove to be one that got away after his goal for Marseille against PSG.