BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE,Nottingham Forest was the wrong club for me – now it is time to move on

Former defender Loic Mbe Soh, now playing in the Belgian league, opens up about his struggles after his transfer to Nottingham Forest from Paris Saint-Germain

In an honest reflection of his time with Nottingham Forest, former defender Loic Mbe Soh has admitted the City Ground was the wrong choice of transfer.

Arriving from the academy of Paris Saint-Germain when Forest were still a Championship outfit, the excitement over a talent like Mbe Soh was tangible. After all, this is the same youth system that trained the likes of Christopher Nkunku, Moussa Diaby and Kingsley Coman into the world-beating talents they are today across the continent.

Though as easily happens in football, this particular deal failed to live up to the excitement. The 23-year-old would go onto make only 13 appearances for Forest – his last in a disappointing FA Cup third round defeat to Blackpool in January 2023.

Subsequent loans to EA Guingamp of the French second tier and Dutch outfit Almere City were agreed to see out the final 18 months of his contract in England, and ultimately the decision was made to allow him to leave for free at the start of the latest summer.

“In retrospect, that was not the right club for me at that time. I was also plagued by injuries. And to be successful in football, everything has to be right,” he told Belgian publication Gazet van Antwerpen, adding: “That was not the case at Nottingham Forest. But you can’t dwell on that for too long. That’s football. It’s part of it. Move on.”

And move on Mbe Soh has done. Although securing a new club was not exactly a smooth transition, by the end of the summer he had found a home with Belgian Pro League club Beerschot.