Nottingham Forest owner reveals €20m bid rejected – Winger kept in Marinakis reshuffle

Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis has revealed he rejected a January offer for André Luiz before completing the winger’s move from Rio Ave to Olympiacos.

Both André Luiz and Clayton played in Portugal for Rio Ave, another club under Marinakis’ control. In January, he transferred the pair internally to Olympiacos. However, before finalising that move, he received significant external interest.

Speaking at Olympiacos’ training centre, Marinakis told his squad he turned down proposals worth close to €20m (£17.1m) for André Luiz. According to him, Wolves and Benfica submitted those bids. He added that total offers for André Luiz and Clayton exceeded €30m (£25.6m).

“I had proposals of close to €20m for André Luiz, from Wolves and Benfica, and for Clayton more than €10m from the UAE. But I wanted Olympiacos to become stronger,” he said, as relayed by the Portugues press.

Premier League interest confirmed

Although the Nottingham Forest owner mentioned Wolves directly, Sunderland were the English side most heavily linked with André Luiz during the winter window. Portuguese and Brazilian reports repeatedly connected the Championship club with the 23-year-old while he was still at Rio Ave.

That context matters. English interest emerged while André Luiz impressed in Portugal. Instead of selling to the Premier League and possibly strenghten Forest’s opponents, Marinakis chose to move him from Rio Ave to Olympiacos.

He explained that sporting reasons drove the decision. Olympiacos had lost Yaremchuk and Kabella earlier in the season. Therefore, he prioritised strengthening the Athens side.

“We brought the best winger of the first half of the season in Portugal, André Luiz, and the top scorer of the Portuguese league, Clayton,” Marinakis told the players.

Clayton also attracted offers worth more than €10m (£8.5m) from the United Arab Emirates. Still, André Luiz was the main focus because of the higher valuation and English attention.

To stress the scale of the rejected bids, Marinakis added: “You know, €30m to €35m is the budget of a big EuroLeague basketball team.”

Multi-club strategy in practice

Marinakis owns Nottingham Forest and controls both Rio Ave and Olympiacos. His comments show how he uses that structure. Rather than accept Premier League money, he strengthened Olympiacos by bringing two standout performers from Portugal.

But now we know Wolves’ January interest was real, even if Marinakis had different plans. We’ll see if any English clubs return in the summer.