Transfer gossip: Bordeaux stance on Josh Maja revealed and how ex-Sunderland striker nearly joined Blackburn Rovers and Nottingham Forest

However, according to reports, the French club would prefer a permanent deal for the attacker who spent some time on loan in the Premier League with Fulham last season.

Maja scored 16 goals during the 2018-19 campaign with Sunderland in League One before being sold in the January of that season.

It hasn’t worked out for the striker in France but there were some flashes of quality during the loan move with Fulham.

Championship club Nottingham Forest were said to have agreed a deal to pay Bordeaux a fee of €4.5m for Maja last summer.

That roughly equated to around £3.8m for the striker but the deal fell through due to an issue with Maja’s medial.

It has now been revealed that Blackburn Rovers were also within a successful medical away from signing Maja on a season-long loan deal on deadline day in the summer.

But a back issue highlighted in his medical saw that deal fall through and Maja return to France.

A report in the Lancashire Telegraph states Bordeaux are looking to “raise funds in the January window” and that “Maja one of the players able to leave.”

Maja – now a Nigeria international – has 18 months left on his deal with Bordeaux thought to be asking for at least £3million.

Having sold Maja to Bordeaux midway through the 2018-19 season, Sunderland would have been entitled to 10 per cent of the profit Bordeaux made on Maja.

Maja’s departure from Wearside mid-way through the campaign was a controversial episode with the player and his agent often portrayed as the villain.

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