All Whites Midfielder completes $9.6 Million move to Premier League club

All Whites midfielder Marko Stamenić has finalised a deal that will take him to English Premier League’s Nottingham Forest.

As earlier reported by the Herald, the move will see him eventually form an Kiwi duo with All Whites captain Chris Wood, but Forest have announced he will spend the 2024/25 season on loan at Greek powerhouse Olympiacos.

The 22-year-old has just completed an impressive season with Red Star Belgrade in Serbia, part of a team that completed a league and cup double.

The reported fee for Stamenić's services is around Є5.5 million ($9.6 million).

That would represent the second-highest sum paid for a Kiwi footballer, only behind Wood. Wood, who scored 14 goals in the recently completed season for Nottingham Forest, was the subject of a $50m move to Newcastle United in 2022 and has had three other transfers well in excess of $10m across his remarkable career.

The Greek giants, Olympiacos, who are regulars in the Uefa Champions League, are also owned by billionaire Evangelos Marinakis, who accquired Nottingham Forest in 2017.

Spending time in Greece is seen as the best place for his continued development, before he returns to the Premier League club ahead of the 2025-2026 season. Olympiacos have been Greek champions 47 times. They have also reached the round of 16 in the Champions League on seven occasions, reaching the quarter-finals in 1999 and won a major European trophy last season, taking out the Uefa Europa Conference League with a 1-0 win over Fiorentina.

Leading into the current transfer window, which opened on Saturday, Stamenic’s future had been a hot topic. He had been linked with several European clubs and was close to signing with Coventry City in the English Championship.

“We agreed everything but we did not sign a contract with Coventry because the player did not accept going to the Championship,” Red Star general manager Zvezdan Terzic told Serbian newspaper Sport Klub. “His express desire was the Premier League of England and the club contacted him.”

The move continues a heady rise for the Wellington product, who came through the Ole Academy and Western Suburbs before leaving for Europe in 2020. Stamenic has long been seen as one to watch – ever since his impressive performances at the 2019 Under-17 World Cup, where he particularly stood out in a game against Brazil.

That game sparked interest from European agents and started his trajectory. Crucially, Stamenic has performed at every step of the ladder, converting potential into reality.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission