Defender Sam Sanders will remain at York City, after penning a new two-year contract to make his previous loan move permanent.

  • About the move

Following the termination of Sanders' extended loan spell with The Minstermen, he returned to recently-promoted Nottingham Forest to see Forest gain promotion to the Premier League additional to City's playoff victory which took them back to the National League.

The Reds offered Sanders a new contract but the defender was more persuaded by the idea of first-team football at National League level with York.

A mouth-watering two-year deal was placed in front of him, and it was a 'no-brainer' to accept it and return to the LNER Community Stadium.

The 20-year-old was a regular at various youth levels at Forest and made 16 appearances in the Premier League 2 last campaign.

After moving to York in February on a one-month loan, Sanders' first two appearances were separated by a spell on the sidelines, leading manager John Askey to agree a loan extension for the centre-half to prove his worth at the club.

Sanders played a total of 944 minutes and went on to form a rock-solid defensive partnership with teammate Maxim Kouogun, where they kept some valuable clean sheets, and helped guide the team to promotion.

  • Sanders' comments

Sam Sanders spoke to the club media upon accepting joining York City permanently.

“I broke into the team and ever since then it’s been amazing.

“The fans here are unbelievable, you see the attendance week in, week out that you get, and in the playoffs you are breaking records – they get behind you every step of the way.

"It's also an amazing group of lads that was here last year - I got on with every single one of them."

There was only one right decision for the defender when choosing his next career step: "It was a no-brainer really - just been promoted, National League and first-team football.

"You look at the National League nowadays, there are some massive teams and York being one of them.”

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