If all goes well, Nottingham Forest hope to make winger Ramon Sosa their seventh signing of the summer after extensive negotiations with Argentine club Talleres finally reached a successful outcome.
The 24-year-old is expected to sign before Nuno Espirito Santo’s side face Bournemouth on Saturday for their Premier League opener at the City Ground. Sosa is unlikely to be involved in that game, but he is another exciting signing to add to the encouraging business already done by Forest.
But what exactly does Sosa bring to the table? And why did the deal take so long?
Who is he?
As a teenager, Sosa played for Tembetary, a lower-league side based more than 200km away from his home town of Maracana, a rural, quiet area of northeastern Paraguay. He did not make his professional debut until he was 20, having been spotted by River Plate Asuncion, who gave him an opportunity in their youth setup.
River Plate, historically a lower-division club, were in the Primera Division when Sosa made his debut for them in 2020. After scoring four goals in 29 appearances, he attracted the attention of Olimpia, where Braian Ojeda — who is the last Paraguayan player Forest signed, in 2021 — built his reputation.
Sosa playing for River Plate in 2020 (Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images)
“When he first started out in the lower leagues, nobody expected him to make the big push to this level. But then he moved to Olimpia, which is the biggest team in Paraguay, and people started to say, ‘Well, he can do it in Paraguay, but can he do it abroad?’,” says Roberto Rojas, a Paraguayan football expert with ESPNFC.
Many Paraguayan players who want to test themselves at a higher level end up moving to Argentina and Sosa was no different, joining Gimnasia de la Plata in 2022. He scored six goals in 39 appearances as he helped Gimnasia qualify for the 2023 Copa Sudamericana.
“Whenever he has had his critics, he has responded by moving himself up another level,” says Rojas. “He did not get his chance in professional football until he was 20, but he just kept going and going. He established himself as one of the best players in Argentina and he did that as a foreign player, as a Paraguayan.”
The key move for Sosa was his switch to Talleres de Cordoba, where he has established himself as one of the most exciting players in the Argentine top flight. Those who watched him regularly believe he can follow in the footsteps of fellow Paraguayans Miguel Almiron — who has thrived at Newcastle — and Julio Enciso, the Brighton forward.
“Almiron and Enciso, they were plucked from academies very early on, but Sosa wasn’t. He had to work his way through from what was essentially Sunday league. He was playing in a really remote town, 200km away from any big cities. It was just a local league. His performances did attract interest, but only from the smaller teams in Paraguay. It is hard to make a jump to a bigger team from there, but his progression has been so rapid since.
“This will put Forest on the map in Paraguay. English football is popular there anyway, but there is always more interest in exciting, attacking players.”
Paraguay finished bottom of their group in the Copa America this summer, losing to Costa Rica, Brazil and Colombia, but Sosa played in every game and scored his first international goal in the 2-1 defeat to Costa Rica, with his performances one of the high points of a disappointing tournament for the country.
“Paraguay have struggled recently, they were poor in the Copa games, but Sosa has always been a bright spark for them, one of the better players,” says Rojas. “There will be Forest shirts sold on the streets of Paraguay in days — perhaps not authentic ones immediately, but there will be people making them to sell already.”
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What does he bring to Forest?
Sosa is an exciting, attack-minded winger who likes to carry the ball and take defenders on. He is right-footed but prefers to play on the left, allowing him to cut inside.
He averages 0.74 shot-creating actions per 90 minutes from taking players on which, according to FBRef, puts him in the 95th percentile among his peers in South American football. His average of 0.95 shot-creating actions from fouls won puts him in the top one per cent. His average of 3.72 successful take-ons per game also puts him in the top one per cent.
Sosa, left, playing for Paraguay at Copa America in June (Logan Riely/Getty Images)
His stats are better than good. His average of 0.56 goals per 90 over the past year puts him in the top four per cent, but his finishing is even more impressive, with his average of 0.23 goals per shot again putting him in the top one per cent.
“You are getting a winger who is very creative,” says Rojas. “He can play on the right, but he generally does his best work on the left. He is not a huge physical specimen, but he is very quick. He has a good shot on him and he is very clever at being able to find pockets of space to work in; to find the passes to hit the forward players.”
How did the deal unfold?
Contact was first made between Nottingham Forest and Talleres in late July when it seemed as though an agreement was quickly reached over a transfer package for the player.
In fact, Talleres, Sosa’s club in Argentina, believed it essentially had been, but the situation did not prove quite as straightforward as anyone would have hoped or expected.
On August 2, Talleres president Andres Fassi, who had previously assured fans the club would seek a transfer fee of as much as £20million, stated that he was not prepared to fly to England to continue negotiations amid reported suggestions that Forest had altered their position when it came to the proposed transfer fee.
It was all very dramatic but ultimately boiled down to two clubs both seeking to secure the best deal for themselves.
How was it resolved?
The player had a big influence in helping the move edge closer to fruition. Sosa did not travel with the rest of the squad that faced Barracas Central last week and, according to reports in Argentina, there were question marks over whether he would make himself available for the Copa Libertadores meeting with Argentina’s River Plate today.
As it happened, the wheels were already in motion for his move to Forest to be completed, with the player flying to England last night (Wednesday) to complete a medical and the final details of his switch.
During his pre-match press conference for the River Plate game, Talleres manager Walter Ribonetto confirmed that Sosa has been training individually. “He’s training, but he’s not doing anything with opposition. With the ball but individually. He’s getting physically fit after the holidays he had and the Copa America,” he said.
Sosa also deleted all of his content from his Instagram account while waiting for an agreement to be reached between the two clubs. “He was in the squad for the River Plate game initially after the talks with Forest broke down,” says Rojas. “But there were question marks over whether he would play against River Plate had the situation not been resolved. He deleted his social media, everything was in the media, but his basic message was that he wanted to join Forest, which will have helped speed the situation along.”
Sosa after scoring for Talleres in May (Diego Lima/AFP/Getty Images)Will he start for Forest?
It’s unlikely. Nuno normally likes to give new signings some time to acclimatise before giving them a chance in the starting line-up and Sosa will not have had that. He has only trained with the rest of the squad in the past few days.
There is also the fact he does not speak English. Sosa does speak basic Spanish, which is one of the two main languages spoken in Paraguay, but the native language is Guarani, which is more prevalent in the rural areas where Sosa is from.
His Spanish has improved since being in Argentina and he will be able to communicate with Nuno and with a few of the other players who speak Spanish, such as multi-lingual Anthony Elanga.
But he will have to start English lessons before he can communicate properly with most in a dressing room.
That dressing room now also includes some high-quality options on the flanks, with Callum Hudson-Odoi, Elanga, the hugely versatile Elliot Anderson, and another summer signing, Jota Silva, all fighting for a chance in the wider roles within Nuno’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation.
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(Top photo: Sosa playing for Paraguay against Argentina in October last year; by Marcelo Endelli via Getty Images)
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Publish date : 2024-08-14 17:20:00
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