Nottingham Forest forward Jota Silva saw his dream move to Sporting Lisbon fall through due to a delay of just 60 seconds.
Jota was due to move to the Portuguese giants in the closing hours of the window after Forest finally agreed to let him leave – with just an hour remaining until the deadline. With the window in Portugal remaining open until midnight (11pm BST), there was confidence that the deal would be done in time.
Yet Daily Mail Sport understands that the agreement, which included an initial loan fee of about £4million with an option to buy of £13.5m, fell through because of a delay of one minute.
It is believed the documents required to register Jota were late to be processed on the Liga Portugal’s online platform, by an agonisingly small margin. Sporting lodged the papers with FIFA’s transfer matching system before the deadline but the Portuguese one was missed. With terms agreed so late in the day, it became extremely difficult to process the transfer in time.
It is particularly galling for Jota as he has been aware of Sporting’s interest all summer and was keen on the move, having found himself on the fringes at Forest under Nuno Espirito Santo.
The move dragged through the summer because Sporting wanted a loan with an option to buy – the agreement they would ultimately find – while Forest were looking for a permanent sale.
Jota Silva’s dream move from Nottingham Forest to Sporting Lisbon collapsed due to a one-minute delay on deadline day
The documents needed to register Jota were processed late by Liga Portugal’s online platform
There was also late interest from Brazilian club Botafogo, who have traded with Forest already during this window, but Jota was holding out for Sporting. Eventually, Forest accepted Sporting’s original terms and the race was on to complete the deal. They did not make it in time.
With first-team action unlikely at Forest, Jota could now move either to Turkey or the Middle East, where the transfer windows remain open until mid-September.
Sporting did not comment.
