SportsCatch
EN

Nakamura signs with Lyon as joker replacement after Fofana's surprise departure to Sunderland

Unable to secure a replacement before the French transfer window closed, Lyon finalized the loan arrival of Japanese forward Keito Nakamura (26) from Reims under joker status.

1 min read
Nakamura signs with Lyon as joker replacement after Fofana's surprise departure to Sunderland
Share

Keito Nakamura will join Olympique Lyonnais as a joker the day after the French transfer window closed. The 26-year-old Japanese forward, trained at Reims, has already passed his medical and is expected in Lyon on Wednesday to sign his contract, according to Foot Mercato.

His arrival is directly linked to the late departure of Malick Fofana. The 20-year-old Belgian winger chose at the last minute to join Sunderland rather than Crystal Palace, leaving Lyon’s management without the necessary time to find him a replacement before the market closed on Tuesday at 8 p.m.

An agreement between Lyon and Reims had existed for a long time, in the form of a loan with an option to buy. Fofana’s hesitation had at one point jeopardized the deal, but the regulation allowing the use of a joker enabled the Rhône club to finalize the transfer despite the deadline being exceeded.

Nakamura, who plays mainly as a winger, brings Lyon an attacking profile capable of immediately compensating for the absence of the young Belgian international.

Share
{# Sitewide native fullscreen interstitial — our own bet-CTA card blown up to a takeover (replaces the SDK overlay). The shared card animations + countdown load once, AFTER the interstitial markup, so the countdown script's first tick sees this card's node too (the in-read card, in
above, already exists). One include covers both surfaces. #}