Fanni rues Forest failure

Rod Fanni is still annoyed a move to Nottingham Forest failed to materialise.

Nice defender Rod Fanni is still annoyed a move to Nottingham Forest failed to materialise.

The 24-year-old defender, who is being strongly linked with a move to Marseille in the January transfer window, trained at The City Ground in 2004 but failed to convince the then boss Joe Kinnear that he was worthy of a deal.

Fanni is now ready to move on again from his current club Nice and he would love to make a similar impact in England to that of Pascal Chimbonda.

"I want to play for a bigger club than Nice," Fanni told skysports.com.

"I really love English football and I look at a number of clubs.

"Doing a 'Chimbonda' would be great: playing for a mid-table or emerging team first, in order to be recognised there.

"Fulham's Papa Bouba Diop was my neighbour at Lens, he does very well in The Premiership.

"I had a trial period a year and a half ago at Nottingham Forest.

"I was sorry that I wasn't signed, because the training sessions were fantastic, and I felt so good.

"But I was told I wasn't tall and strong enough to play as a central defender."

Despite Nice's relatively poor campaign to date, Fanni has had a good season which has led to Marseille's interest.

"I haven't been directly in contact with l'OM, but I have heard and read about this possibility.

"It is nice to hear it, because I am from the region, and I used to go to watch Marseille matches as a child.

"They interest me, but I think I will finish the season with Nice, and I will see afterwards.

"I am 100 percent Nice, I am the kind of player who doesn't make plans for the future, I trust my immediate feelings."

Fanni is also confident that Nice will soon turn their season around.

"Our debut [season] is far from our real level and image," he said.

"Nice have qualities and I sincerely think we can do better. There is a problem of goalscoring, but there a number of other problems that have to be solved."