Sampdoria goalkeeper Emil Audero has confirmed he turned down an approach made by Nottingham Forest in the winter market.
The Tricky Trees were forced to look at the 26-year-old after Dean Henderson suffered an injury in January.
Last month, La Repubblica reported the Italian has become a cult hero at the Serie A side after taking a pay cut and rejecting Nottingham Forest.
Sampdoria players took a pay cut since the club was at risk of having points deducted due to unpaid wages. This was vital in giving the team a chance to avoid getting relegated this season as they are currently bottom of the table.
Audero explained the reasons for reducing his salary and also not accepting the offer made by Steve Copper’s side in the last window.
“A premise. We all know how delicate the football and non-football period of Sampdoria is. We are in an emergency ranking position, even if it must be recognised that we have grown since January, when Serie A restarted,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“And here I connect to your question. Mine was already an important and central role, but the coach decided to increase its value by giving me the armband.
“I thought we had to make every effort to help the club out of this situation. I had an offer, but for the reasons listed, I felt that all the attention received here deserved to be reciprocated. It wouldn’t have been right to leave like this, I’ve been here for five years.
“I’ve always said when things were going well that Genoa is the city where things are better, and even now the demonstrations of affection from the fans don’t deserve this ranking. Salaries? The gesture of the players was important so that disastrous scenarios did not open up.”
Nottingham Forest finished the January window by adding Keylor Navas [on loan from PSG] to their squad. The Costa Rican has conceded seven goals and kept a clean sheet from four league matches.
