Nottingham Forest are preparing to trigger Gustavo Puerta’s €18m release clause, a move that would send €8.5m to Bayer Leverkusen through a sell-on agreement and push the midfielder toward another loan before he settles in England. The plan gives the transfer a sharp edge: Forest are not just buying a player, they are also activating a profit share that was left behind when Racing Santander signed him for about €1m.
Puerta has become expensive because the market has changed around him. After leaving Bayer Leverkusen from Bogotá FC in January 2023, he never became a regular at the BayArena, and a loan spell with 1. FC Nürnberg did not change that. He then spent the 2024/25 campaign on loan at Hull City before Bayer Leverkusen allowed the permanent move to Racing Santander. Strong performances at the 2026 World Cup have since lifted his value enough for Nottingham Forest to move at the full €18m clause rather than wait for the price to cool.
The money split is straightforward. Racing Santander’s profit on a player they bought for €1m and are now set to sell for €18m is €17m, and Bayer Leverkusen retained 50 percent of any future transfer profit when they let him go last summer. That means the German club would receive €8.5m from the next sale, a sizeable return on a midfielder who never established himself as a key first-team option there while Granit Xhaka and Exequiel Palacios crowded the same area of the pitch.
There is, though, a practical wrinkle in the move that keeps Forest from being the obvious immediate destination. Kicker reports that Puerta will be loaned directly to Olympiakos for the 2026/27 season after the transfer is completed, which means the English club may have to register him before sending him on again. That would make the deal look less like a direct squad upgrade and more like a transfer chain built around timing, paperwork and a player whose value has risen faster than his settled role at any one club.
For Puerta, the next step is clear even if the sequence is not. He is heading into a move that should first enrich Bayer Leverkusen and Racing Santander, then place him with Olympiakos on loan, leaving Nottingham Forest to own the rights to a player they may not use immediately. The question now is not whether the fee will be triggered, but how quickly the clubs can close the first move before the second one begins.
