What Fernando Forestieri, a former star of Sheffield Wednesday, is up to in 2024

If this talent had remained, Sheffield Wednesday may have made enormous progress in the fight to stay in the league.

Sheffield Wednesday, led by Danny Rohl, has won four of their past five Championship games, including a 1-0 victory over local rival Rotherham United last weekend. It is possible that the Owls are peaking at the right time.

This means that Wednesday has a genuine chance to avoid the dreaded relegation to League One, which is an amazing possible accomplishment for Rohl and company given how inevitable relegation appeared for the Owls early in the season.

In fact, former captain Xisco Munoz managed just two points in his team’s first ten games before being, predictably, dismissed from Hillsborough.

Currently, there is just a three-point difference between Wednesday and finishing above the bottom three in 21st place, thanks to the heroics of new players like Ian Poveda and Ike Ugbo who have already won over fans.

Even though Ugbo is already well-liked and has an incredible six goals to his record since signing in January, Wednesday supporters would welcome the return of a certain maverick to give the revitalized South Yorkshire team even more firepower.

The fee Sheffield Wednesday paid to acquire Fernando Forestieri
For a reputed £3 million, Sheffield Wednesday broke the bank to acquire explosive forward Fernando Forestieri back in 2015, which is now almost ten years ago.

During his first full season at Hillsborough, Forestieri appeared to be worth every penny and risk made to pursue him. This was perhaps a huge cost for a forward who had only managed to score five goals in his final season at Watford.

In his debut season of 2015–16, the thrilling 5 foot 8 forward scored 15 goals from 36 appearances. Four of those goals came in back-to-back games against Birmingham City and Wolverhampton Wanderers in December of the same year, keeping the crowd captivated.

But Forestieri would prove to be more than just an amusing one-season wonder; in the seasons that followed his incredible debut in South Yorkshire, he would become a dependable hero for Owls supporters.
Over the course of 134 games, the dangerous Wednesday player would go on to score 40 goals and dish out 17 assists for his team; 17 of those came during the 2016–17 campaign, which saw the Owls advance to the Championship playoffs.

Regretfully, following another successful season wearing Wednesday’s blue and white, Forestieri’s tenure at Hillsborough would subsequently be hampered by off-field turmoil and injury problems.

Even though he would only appear in eleven games in the Championship the next season, he would still manage to

Additional problems, including the outspoken attacker’s desire at one time to move on from Wednesday, would exacerbate the growing annoyance over his unavailability.

This culminated at Hillsborough under Garry Monk’s leadership, as the manager, under duress, yearned for the former Hornets attacker to be available to him more frequently because of his “devastating” ability to intimidate opposing defenses.

The now 34-year-old, however, would endure protracted stints out of the team to round off his memorable time with the South Yorkshire titans on somewhat of a low note; in his final full season, he played just 17 times for his previous employers.
Even so, the renowned former Wednesday number 45, whose unpredictable presence can create a goal out of nothing, would be exciting to watch as the present relegation battle plays out and every goal is given more significance.

When Forestieri left Hillsborough on a free transfer four years ago, his goal production didn’t stop. He went on to succeed once more.

What Forestieri did on Wednesday after departing Sheffield
After leaving Hillsborough, the aging forward moved to the Serie A to show off for Udinese. However, after spending a long time playing in England, the 5 foot 8 star found it difficult to adapt to his new environment.

The former Italy U21 international left Udinese as soon as he arrived, having failed to fully impress his new group of fans. He would only score two goals in total from 28 games for his new Italian team.

Fortunately for Forestieri, his career did not progressively fade away following this unsuccessful transfer overseas; instead, in 2022, he would return to his prolific best in front of goal when he joined Johor Darul Ta’zim in Malaysia.

The veteran forward was not satisfied to end his career with meek performances in the sun. During a brief but productive two-season stint, he developed into a goal machine. His final season in the Malaysia Super League saw the 5 foot 8 creator bow out with an incredible 19 goals from just 20 league games.

At their lowest point of the season on Wednesday, there must have been some consideration over whether it was worth taking a chance on a reunion for Forestieri, now without a club as the inevitable end of his career approaches.
With an escape from the relegation mire now a very real possibility, Rohl and Co. will just try to keep grinding out wins and pushing forward, hoping that players like Ugbo and Poveda are remembered as giants in Wednesday’s quarterfinals if safety is guaranteed in a manner akin to that of Forestieri in his prime.