OGC Nice sporting director  Florent Ghisolfi has praised Terem Moffi for turning down the opportunity to move to the English Premier League as well as join Marseille last month.

West Ham United matched Lorient's asking price for the 23-year-old but he had his mind made up he was going to join Nice. 

Southampton failed in their attempt to lure the Super Eagles striker to the St Mary's Stadium before shifting their focus to his international teammate Paul Onuachu. 

Moffi's eventual transfer to OGC Nice was one of the soap operas of the January transfer window. 

The Eaglets were interested in signing Moffi as soon as the window opened but the offers made by the leadership of the club were deemed insufficient by Lorient, who valued the Nigerian at 30 million euros.

Marseille reached an agreement with Lorient to sign Moffi and promised him the number 9 jersey if he joined the club. 

"It was long and complicated. He always showed the conviction that he wanted to go to Nice. Sincerely, I ask everyone to be aware of what this means," Ghisolfi told Nice Matin, via Sport. fr.

"To have big English clubs and Marseille asking for you and with whom he already had an additional agreement! If he said 'ok', he signed the next day, when we did not yet have this agreement. It's really a big signal sent to OGC Nice."

Moffi has yet to open his goalscoring account after his first two matches for OGC Nice. 

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

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