NEC suffered a sensitive blow in the transfer market last weekend. The million-dollar sale of Kento Shiogai to Red Bull Salzburg will not go through because the Japanese player did not pass the medical examination. The club announced this on Tuesday.
According to NEC, an injury was detected during the examination in Austria. That was reason enough for Red Bull Salzburg to pull the plug on the transfer, as Shiogai was supposed to participate in the upcoming Club World Cup immediately. NEC has not announced what kind of injury Shiogai has.
The failure of the transfer is a nasty blow for NEC. The Nijmegen team would receive a transfer fee of no less than 4.5 million euros from Salzburg, while they only paid a few tons for Shiogai last summer.
Only for Magnus Mattsson (in 2024 for 5 million euros to FC Copenhagen) did NEC receive more money. This means that NEC will probably report losses for the past season, which formally ends on June 30.
Shiogai did not have a spectacular debut season at NEC, but Red Bull Salzburg did see great talent in the Japanese promise. The striker was mainly a substitute in the team of the departed coach Rogier Meijer. In 28 games he scored 5 goals.