Dan Ndoye is the sort of footballer supporters learn to watch through their fingers – not out of worry, but because the Nottingham Forest winger tends to do something worth seeing whenever the ball reaches his feet. The Switzerland international has become one of the first names on Oliver Glasner’s teamsheet, and his goal in the 2-2 draw at Anfield on 29 August was the clearest reminder yet of why Forest fought so hard to keep hold of him this summer.
This is the story of how the No.14 got to the banks of the Trent, what he actually does on a football pitch, and why the Reds regard him as close to untouchable.
Who is Dan Ndoye? The basics
Born on 25 October 2000 in Nyon, on the shore of Lake Geneva, Ndoye came through the academy at Lausanne-Sport before Ligue 1 came calling. He is a Switzerland international, wears the No.14 for Forest, and is listed among Glasner’s forwards rather than his midfielders – a detail that matters, because it reflects how he is used. You can see where he sits in the pecking order in our rundown of the full Nottingham Forest squad numbers for 2026/27.
His route was anything but linear. A teenage move to Nice gave him his first taste of a major European league, and while it never quite caught fire, it hardened him. A return to Switzerland with Basel is where the career turned: regular football, European nights, and the confidence that comes with being trusted week to week.
Bologna, and the goal that ended a 51-year wait
Ndoye joined Bologna in 2023, and it was in Emilia-Romagna that he became a properly serious player. He was a key figure in the Bologna side that gatecrashed Italy’s established order and qualified for the Champions League – a genuine shock in Serie A terms – and then went one better.
In the 2025 Coppa Italia final against AC Milan, Ndoye scored the only goal of the game. It handed Bologna their first major trophy since 1974 and it is, to date, the biggest single moment of his club career. Cup finals are where reputations get made, and scoring the winner in one at the age of 24 tells you plenty about a player’s temperament.
He has form on the international stage too. At Euro 2024 he scored in Switzerland’s 2-0 round-of-16 win over Italy in Berlin, one of the results of that tournament. A knack for turning up in the games that matter is not a coincidence with Ndoye; it is close to a pattern.
The Nottingham Forest move
Forest signed Ndoye in the summer of 2025, with the fee widely reported at around £37m – a figure that placed him firmly among the club’s bigger outlays of the Marinakis era. The logic was straightforward. Forest had pace and directness in the wide areas but wanted a winger who could also finish, carry the ball through contact and deliver in the biggest fixtures.
What has followed has, if anything, strengthened his stock. Roma were among the clubs credited with interest during the summer 2026 window, and Forest made their position plain: as we reported at the time, Ndoye was treated as effectively untouchable despite the Roma links. The window closed on 1 September with him still a Forest player. In a summer when Elliot Anderson left for Manchester City in a deal worth a reported £116m, and Taiwo Awoniyi, David Carmo, Omar Richards and Jota Silva all departed, keeping Ndoye was a statement of intent in itself.
What Dan Ndoye actually gives Glasner
Glasner’s Forest are built to be awkward: compact, aggressive in the press, and dangerous in transition. That last part is where Ndoye earns his money. He is at his best running into space rather than being handed the ball in a crowd, and the Anfield goal on 29 August – in a game where Morgan Gibbs-White also scored and club-record signing Liam Delap made his debut – was exactly that kind of moment. Our full match report from the 2-2 draw at Liverpool has the detail.
Three things stand out about his profile:
- Directness. Ndoye attacks the space in behind rather than drifting infield to receive. Against deep blocks he can look quiet; against sides who commit bodies forward, he is a problem.
- Finishing. Wingers who reliably score are a different asset to wingers who reliably cross. His Coppa Italia final winner and his Euro 2024 goal against Italy were not flukes.
- Big-game nerve. A cup final, a knockout tie against Italy, a goal at Anfield. The pattern is hard to ignore.
The obvious area for growth is consistency across a full Premier League campaign – volume of output rather than moments. That is the leap Forest are paying for.
What comes next
Forest are still chasing a first win of 2026/27 – two points from three games after the home defeat to Leeds United, the draw at Liverpool and a goalless afternoon against Tottenham Hotspur on 5 September, in which Neco Williams had a goal disallowed by VAR for handball. The Reds are away at Aston Villa at 3pm on Saturday once the September international break clears.
If that first victory is coming, the odds are decent that Ndoye has a hand in it. Forest’s attack is well stocked – Delap, Chris Wood, Igor Jesus, Arnaud Kalimuendo and Callum Hudson-Odoi all compete for minutes – but few of them offer what the Swiss does when a game opens up. For a fanbase that has always warmed to a wide player willing to run at people, he is an easy one to get behind.
For more on the men around him, our Morgan Gibbs-White profile covers Forest’s talisman, while our guide to who Oliver Glasner is explains the head coach shaping how Ndoye is used. Squad details are confirmed via the official Nottingham Forest website, with ongoing beat coverage from the Nottingham Post.
