Nottingham Forest have agreed a loan deal with Napoli for forward Lorenzo Lucca.
The agreement includes an option to buy around €40million and Lucca will fly from Naples on Thursday evening to undergo a medical.
The Athletic reported on Sunday that Forest were close to an agreement for the 25-year-old, who has been on loan at the Italian champions since the summer. He has scored twice in 23 games this season, playing only 595 minutes.
Forest have been interested in a striker this window, with last season’s top scorer Chris Wood sidelined with a knee injury.
The Athletic reported last week that Iran international Mehdi Taremi was the top of their four-forward list, with the arrival of Lucca is not expected to change that, while relegation-threatened Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Jorgen Strand Larsen was also being considered.
Lucca joined Napoli on a season-long loan from Udinese last summer after registering 14 goals over 36 games in the 2024-25 term. He was one of nine incoming players to Antonio Conte’s team, who are third in the league after 21 games.
Lucca has made five appearances for Italy but was not in the squad for the international fixtures in September, October and November.
What can Lucca give Forest?
Analysis by Nottingham Forest correspondent Paul Taylor
Nottingham Forest raised plenty of eyebrows when they allowed summer signing Arnaud Kalimuendo to depart to join Frankfurt on loan, barely five months after they had signed him from Rennes.
But if Sean Dyche had any doubts over whether Kalimuendo was the right fit for his Forest side, the same is unlikely to be true of Lucca.
With last season’s 20-goal top scorer Chris Wood still sidelined with a knee injury, Forest have lacked firepower.
Despite the best efforts of Igor Jesus, who has performed well in almost every department asides from putting the ball in the net, only bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers (15) have scored fewer goals than Forest, who have only scored in four of their last six Premier League games.
Forest’s performance in the 0-0 draw with Arsenal last weekend was impressive — but it was still the 11th time they have drawn a blank in the league this season — which is more than any other side.
In Lucca, they are not signing a player with an emphatic scoring record this season, he has only scored once in 16 Serie A appearances for Napoli. But he was a more prolific figure last season, when he scored 14 goals in 36 games with Udinese. And most importantly of all, he is a player who can replicate the kind of physical presence that Wood contributed as Nuno Espirito Santo’s side finished seventh last season.
Lucca, at 6ft 7in tall, unsurprisingly thrives when he gets on the end of balls into the box.
And one of Forest’s problems in recent weeks has been that they have been delivering a host of balls into the box without anyone to get on the end of them. They have attempted the most crosses in the league (532), rank 17th for completion rate, and there are only five goals to show from these.
Forest will hope that Lucca is somebody who can help to change that.
