Ex-Middlesbrough & Bolton Wanderers star joins shock new club | OneFootball

Former Middlesbrough and Bolton Wanderers forward has joined Uzbek champions Neftchi Fergana.

After a summer of trying to find a new club, former Middlesbrough and Bolton Wanderers forward Marcus Forss has now joined Uzbek Premier League outfit Neftchi Fergana on a free transfer.

Marcus Forss came through the academies at West Bromwich Albion and Brentford, turning professional for the latter and even featuring in the Premier League for The Bees.

That came after a breakthrough loan stint at AFC Wimbledon where he scored 11 goals in 18 games in League One before contributing seven Championship goals to Brentford’s 2020-21 promotion-winning campaign in the second-tier.

After making seven top-flight appearances but being pushed further to the fringes at the Gtech Community Stadium, Forss spent the second half of the following season on loan at Hull City before completing a £3.5 million move to Middlesbrough in the summer of 2022.

Injuries and inconsistency eventually undermined a positive start to life at the Riverside before he was loaned out to eventual League One play-off winners Bolton Wanderers last season.

Now, after being released by ‘Boro after they lost the Championship play-off final against Hull in late-May, Forss has found a new club at last.

Marcus Forss has signed for Neftchi Fergana

Having been without a club over the summer, Marcus Forss has completed a not-well publicised move to Uzbek outfit Neftchi Fergana.

It has been revealed that, fairly bizarrely, Forss’ contract at Neftchi is for him to exclusively play in the 2026-27 AFC Champions League Elite.

Neftchi won the Uzbek title for the first time since 2001 and the sixth time in their history in 2025, qualifying them for the competition for the first time since 2012.

Forss was named on the bench for the opening game of their AFC Champions League Elite league stage clash against Al Quwa Al Jawiya and he joins a squad that consists of former Brazil U23 international Michel and former Watford striker Stipe Perica, as well as Jamshid Iskanderov and Abdulla Abdullaev; who were a part of the Uzbekistan squad that played at FIFA World Cup 2026 this summer.

Forss had spent a fair bit of time training with Bolton over the summer in order to maintain his fitness and even featured in pre-season for The Trotters.

Marcus Forss unfulfilled potential from Middlesbrough and Bolton

Having shone brightly in League One as a youngster for Wimbledon and been a part of a Brentford setup well known for its development of talent and talent identification, Forss is someone who many have viewed as having immense potential for a while.

The Finland international attacker, who was a part of Finland’s first ever major tournament squad at UEFA EURO 2020, has struggled with injuries and physical limitations throughout the last half a decade or so.

He found himself moving to the periphery of things on Teesside despite some promising moments in his debut campaign for The Smoggies before never finding consistency in a Bolton shirt.

His first start for Bolton saw him score a superb brace as Wanderers hammered local rivals Wigan Athletic by four goals to one but a policy of regular rotation saw him struggle to maintain those heights for Steven Schumacher before injury ended his campaign at the Toughsheet Community Stadium in January.

Forss had trained with Bolton over the summer and featured in pre-season but Wanderers instead pursued a move for Max Dean up-front as well as the likes of Jayden Nelson and Samuel Iling-Junior out-wide as the season went on with no move for Forss occurring, despite him showing some versatility last season at Wanderers, playing up-front as well as on both wings and even as a second striker on occasion.