Dinamo Zagreb striker Sandro Kulenovic is reportedly Chris Hughton’s primary target to boost Nottingham Forest's hopes of promotion next season.
According to reports in Croatia, Kulenovic has been identified as a potential solution to the goalscoring troubles that stumped Forest’s progress last season.
The newspaper Sportske Novosti claims Forest have made a €3million bid for the 21-year-old forward, which is now being weighed up by Dinamo Zagreb.
Born in the Croatian capital in 1999, Kulenovic grew up with footballing heritage in his family. His father, Bihac Kulenovic earned seven caps for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Sandro, who joined his boyhood club Dinamo as a nine-year-old in 2008, came right through the club’s academy system before enjoying some stellar goalscoring campaigns as a youngster looking to catch the eye.
During the 2015–16 season, Kulenovic recorded 33 goal contributions in 27 games for Zagreb's reserves, 22 of which were goals.
Though, after signing a three year deal with Legia Warsaw’s academy upon ending his sensational 2015/16 campaign, he then went out on trial with Juventus for a season before returning to Poland in the summer of 2018.
By then, Kulenovic was making a name for himself as a young goalscorer sure to make the grade; the only question mark that remained was where he was going to make his professional first-team breakthrough, having already played in several countries across Europe by the time he had turned 18 years old.
Merely a month after returning from Italian giants Juventus, Kulenovic made his competitive debut in the UEFA Champions League. Albeit against Cork City, the teenage striker was afforded a ten-minute cameo by former Legia head coach Dean Klafuric.
A month later, Kulenovic signed a new three-year contract at the Polish club and scored his first professional goal in a 1–1 league draw against Jagiellonia Bialystok in October 2018.
Despite only making six starts during the 2018/19 league season, Kulenovic still managed to score four goals in the Polish Ekstraklasa top-flight. Kulenovic topped a fine campaign with Croatia’s Under-21s by scoring a hat-trick in a 3-1 friendly win over Belarus.
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The following season, the Croatian centre-forward returned to his homeland, but ultimately failed to replicate the goalscoring touch he showed for Legia Warsaw the year before. Kulenovic didn't manage to register a single goal all year as his return to Zagreb didn't quite reach the heights that were expected of him after penning a long-term deal in September 2019.
Following his unsuccessful first year back at the club dearest to his heart, Kulenovic left on loan at the start of last season, as HNL Rijeka acquired the services of a striker low on confidence. After making his debut for Rijeka in a Europa League qualifying round against Kolos Kovalivka, he had every excuse to feel even more fed up with his rotten luck.
The match went into extra time and, while the score was 1-0, Kulenovic notably had an opportunity to extend Rijeka’s lead to 2-0; however, the ball stopped in a puddle of mud on the goal line as the pitch was soaking wet due to heavy rain. Though, he wouldn’t have to wait long for his first goal for the club.
Kulenovic managed to score on his league debut against Slaven Belupo in October and soon followed it up with another strike the week after by scoring the winner against NK Varazdin. Last season, the striker Nottingham Forest have reportedly bid for scored seven goals in the Croatian top-flight and managed to grab another in the Europa League in Rijeka’s 4-1 loss to AZ Alkmaar.
