Newcastle United have joined the battle for £9 million rated Lille utility man Mathieu Debuchy according to the Daily Star Sunday.
The 26-year-old Frenchman has spent his entire career in Ligue 1 with Lille, current Newcastle midfielder Yohan Cabaye’s former club, and may well be ready for a new challenge in English football.
Much like Cabaye, Debuchy has been with Lille from his youth and throughout his senior career, and actually made his debut for the Ligue 1 side one year before Yohan.
5ft 9in tall, Debuchy began his career as a defensive midfielder, but for the last few years he has featured as a right back, which is definitely his favoured position.
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It is on the right of defence that Debuchy has recently featured for Laurent Blanc’s France, making three appearances and looking for a place in the Euro 2012 squad.
There is no doubting Debuchy’s experience, having played over 200 times for Lille in Ligue 1 and I’m sure Cabaye will have no trouble in tempting the Frenchman to Tyneside.
However, the Daily Star Sunday is reporting that Debuchy is rated at just short of £10 million, which is pretty steep, and the interest from Premier League champions Man United and La Liga’s Valencia is certainly of the highest calibre.
Sir Alex Ferguson even made a personal check on the 26-year-old last month and n regards to Los Che, Debuchy said: “I have had contact with Valencia, but now I think about the season finale with Lille. We’ll see at the end of season, for the moment I am in Lille.”
Mathieu Debuchy hit the football headlines for a rather strange reason recently as he embraced French striker Olivier Giroud in what can only be described as French kissing…
Kissing or no kissing, if Alan Pardew could do a deal for Debuchy in the summer it would be quite a coup indeed.
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