Keylor Navas-Forest operation made possible by PSG team mate
PSG had reached the limit of players out on loan but were given a helping hand by Athletic Club and one of Keylor’s team mates.
Keylor Navas was officially announced as a new Nottingham Forest player just a few hours after the winter market closed. The 36-year-old Costa Rican joined the English club on loan. But complete the loan deal, PSG had to first find a destination for another of their players. FIFA regulations state that: “From 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023, a club may have a maximum of eight professionals loaned out and eight loaned in at any given time during a season”.
New FIFA rules on loaning players
The key to unlocking the Navas deal was Ander Herrera. According to L’Équipe, PSG had originally planned to cancel the midfielder’s loan to Athletic Club, but the Basque club turned the negotiations around by executing the purchase option they had on the player. Once Herrera was no longer a player out on loan, the Parisians were able to loan Keylor Navas to Nottingham Forest without any impediment.
Herrera heads back to Bilbao
As confirmed by the current Ligue 1 leaders in a club statement, Navas’ loan deal does not include a purchase option, so he will return to Paris at the end of the season. Ander Herrera, on the other hand, returns to Bilbao on a permanent deal until June 2024. He spent three seasons at Athletic before joining Manchester United in 2014. He landed in the French capital in 2019, was played an important part in helping PSG reach their first Champions League final in 2020. After a promising start to the 2021/22 season under Mauricio Pochettino, he lost prominence in the side until he was loaned to Athletic in August last year.