Three Nottingham Forest academy players who could breakthrough in 2025

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The Nottingham Forest academy is the envy of many other clubs given how much the club has raised in transfer funds over the years.

Evangelos Marinakis has worked tirelessly to ensure the pathway from the academy to the first-team remains intact.

The Reds need to make sure they look after their proud history of including academy starlets in their matchday squad and Nuno Espirito Santo takes pride in that.

Ahead of the New Year, we’ve looked at three Nottingham Forest gems that could break through in 2025.

• READ MORE: Nottingham Forest Academy 2024/25

Eric da Silva Moreira

After initially starting the season as part of the matchday squad under Nuno Espirito Santo, Moreira has been forced to play some games for the B-Team over recent weeks.

That said, he does look like an exceptionally gifted player though and has helped himself to a few goals for the B-Team including one against Monaco in the Premier League International Cup.

A Germany under-19 international, Moreira looks like a very useful player at right-back and it might not be long before he’s making an impact on the first team stage.

Zach Abbott

Zach Abbott has already made his first-team debut and the centre-back has impressed Espirito Santo this season.

In the summer, Joe Worrall took Abbott under his wing and that should serve him well for his development.

Abbott is training on a daily basis with the first-team squad now and if a number of injuries are sustained as the season progresses, the youngster might get the nod.

He also made the squad for the recent clash with Everton in Ryan Yates’ absence.

Joe Gardner

Another player who is doing great things with the academy ranks is striker Gardner and he is someone else who has impressed Espirito Santo previously.

Gardner is a Nottingham-born player and he’s scoring goals on a regular basis for the B-Team this season in the Premier League 2 campaign.

The talented youngster will fancy getting the nod if anything goes awry with the first-team strikers given that Chris Wood and Taiwo Awoniyi are the only two in the first team squad.