Nottingham Forest have been linked with a move for an Argentinian striker who is "ready to make the next step to Europe" according to Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola.
Valentin 'Taty' Castellanos is still only 23 years old but is lighting up the stage over in America. He scored 19 goals from 32 appearances as New York City won their first-ever MLS Cup title and Castellanos picked up the Golden Boot award. He has scored seven already from 11 appearances so far during 2022.
Forest were reportedly monitoring Castellanos in January and that link has resurfaced this summer.
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West Ham United, Leeds United, River Plate and Palmeiras are all said to be keen, although Bola VIP report the asking price was proving to be a stumbling block. But they add Castellanos is now a “concrete option” for Forest and they have “asked for conditions for his transfer”.
The 23-year-old - born in Mendoza, Argentina - broke into football with Montevideo City Torque, then called Club Atletico Torque, back in 2017. It was a few years before City Football Group bought the club and by then the striker had moved on to New York City in 2018, where he has been scoring goals pretty much ever since.
"I think he is a guy who will do the next step in Europe," Guardiola said of Castellanos in December 2021.
"What I saw when the scouting department talked to me, what [former New York City manager] Dome Torrent said when I was there [in 2018] and talked about him, I know he is a quality player and I think he is ready to make the next step to Europe. We will see where."
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Henry Hewitt, the host of the MLS UK podcast, compared Castellanos to Chelsea legend Didier Drogba.
He said: "He [Castellanos] actually reminds me a lot of Didier Drogba, he’s very confident to the point where it could be seen as arrogance but has more than shown his quality the season.
"He doesn’t just score one type of goal. He’s strong, quick, good with his head and isn’t afraid to bring his teammates into play. Sometimes players who are as confident as Castellanos are reluctant to share the ball about but with his assists this season he’s given up goalscoring opportunities for himself to pass to someone else in a better position."
Hewitt's description of Castellanos is somewhat similar to loanee Keinan Davis, who Forest still retain a hope of signing permanently after his impressive loan spell at the City Ground.
According to stats website FBRef, the Argentine is in the top one percent of forwards in the MLS for expected goals and shots per 90 minutes. He also likes to get involve in the build-up play, contributing an average of 2.27 key passes and 1.51 passes into the final third per match. Whilst Davis' preference when shooting was to use his right foot, Castellanos prefers to use his left peg but is also an aerial threat.
In February 2022, New York City boss Ronny Deila said of Castellanos' transfer speculation: "I don’t think he has any problem. When you're an attractive club and you’re doing well, there’s always interest around our players. So he is professional. We are professional. He's our player right now. And we’re preparing for the game with Taty, and that's of course very good for us, because he’s a fantastic football player. But I can also understand that there's a lot of interest around him,” he said.
"He’s a great player, anyone would be interested in him. But I haven’t heard anything, nothing new, and the window in Europe is closed. So I'm preparing with Taty for the season and into the summer, but things change quick in football."
Forest will look to add some more firepower to their ranks this summer, ahead of the top-flight campaign. But they also have decisions to make on a number of strikers already on their books.
Lewis Grabban’s contract is coming to an end, while Lyle Taylor and Nuno Da Costa were out on loan during the season just gone. Forest do still have Sam Surridge and are expected to try to bring back Keinan Davis, following a successful loan spell from Aston Villa.
