Forest Sign Nigeria Defender Aina
By AFP
Nottingham Forest signed Nigeria defender Ola Aina on a free transfer on Saturday after his departure from Torino.
Aina spent nearly five years with Torino after initially moving there on loan from Chelsea in 2018.
The 26-year-old right-back graduated from Chelsea’s youth academy and made three appearances for the Blues.
During his time with Torino, London-born Aina returned to the English capital for a loan spell with Fulham in the 2020-21 season.
He is the first signing by Forest boss Steve Cooper since the end of last season.
“I’m very excited to be here and I can’t wait to get started. I wanted to be back on English soil again and Forest is a club which has an exciting project and team,” Aina said.
“The manager as well, what he wants from the team is something which I want to buy into. He’s told me it’s a family club, he’s told me we have a great bunch of players and he’s told me I’ll enjoy it here.”
Aina, who has 17 caps for Nigeria, helped Torino to a 10th place finish in Serie A last season.
“He’s a versatile player who has good experience of the Premier League and Serie A,” Cooper said.
“He’s a really good player, but a good athlete as well. He’ll definitely make the team stronger.”