Morgan Gibbs-White’s next move is suddenly being framed as a European battle rather than a domestic one. Bayern Munich have emerged as the leading contender to sign the 26-year-old Nottingham Forest captain, according to TEAMtalk reporting picked up on 22 September, with the midfielder valued at €70m by Transfermarkt.
The German champions had not featured prominently in this story until now. Chelsea considered a summer approach and Manchester United had been repeatedly linked, while Tottenham’s failed attempt to activate Gibbs-White’s £60m release clause two summers ago set the earlier tone. That pursuit ended with Nottingham Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis blocking the deal in protest, filing a legal complaint, and Gibbs-White signing an improved contract at the City Ground.
Marinakis remains the biggest obstacle for any suitor. Forest are under no pressure to sell and the owner is expected to drive a hard bargain, having already lost Elliot Anderson to Manchester City this summer.
Manager Oliver Glasner, appointed on 2 July, has publicly labelled Gibbs-White as not for sale.
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Falk’s dismissal still on the record
The Bayern link comes with a heavy caveat that hardly anyone in England has raised. Six weeks before this latest wave of reports, senior German journalist Christian Falk publicly rejected the Gibbs-White story, writing on 9 August that Bayern’s midfield was already crowded with Joshua Kimmich, Konrad Laimer, Aleksandar Pavlovic and Tom Bischoff, and that the club had no intention of selling Michael Olise.
“Bayern Munich is not searching on this position,” Falk wrote at the time.
Vincent Kompany’s side have not commented publicly on the fresher link, and neither has Gibbs-White.
Agent switch that keeps the German story alive
The renewed interest lands about seven weeks after Gibbs-White changed representation, moving from CAA Stellar to ROOF, first reported by the Daily Mail in early August. ROOF is headquartered in Germany, which is one of the reasons the Bayern connection has kept resurfacing despite Falk’s earlier scepticism.
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Gibbs-White himself is doing nothing to lower the temperature. He leads all English players for goal involvements in 2026 with 18, has started every one of Forest’s opening domestic fixtures this season, and was called into Thomas Tuchel’s England squad on 21 September after Cole Palmer withdrew injured. He had originally been omitted from the squad, prompting sharp criticism from Forest supporters.
Gibbs-White cut short a family holiday to join the squad, a scramble he documented himself on social media.
The transfer window does not reopen until January.
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