OPINION
Newcastle United could seal their masterstroke swoop for Hoffenheim striker Joelinton today.
German magazine Kicker reports that Hoffenheim expect the 22-year-old’s transfer to be wrapped up on Monday after club director Alexander Rosen confirmed that they are in the “home stretch” in regards to negotiations.
Newcastle have been in China in the last week to take part in the Premier League Asia Trophy and are now due to return to England, according to the Chronicle, ahead of the 2019/20 season kicking off early next month.
It would seem as though the Magpies’ return to the North-East could coincide with Joelinton’s arrival, which may explain why the reported £36.2million [Kicker] deal has taken so long to finalise.
Joelinton will no doubt be worth the wait though.
The Brazilian centre-forward scored 11 goals and supplied nine assists in 35 appearances across all competitions for Hoffenheim last season in what was his first full campaign in the Bundesliga.
As far as debut seasons go, being involved in 20 goals is not a bad return for a young striker who had spent the previous two years on loan with Rapid Vienna in Austria.
Joelinton is clearly improving in front of goal while also remaining consistent when it comes to bringing his team-mates into play by supplying assists.
According to stats by WhoScored, it’s also something that Joelinton can do better than Salomon Rondon.
Although Rondon scored more goals – in more appearances – than Joelinton, the Brazilian forward averaged more key passes, more dribbles and was dispossessed less often on average per league outing than the former Magpies loanee.
Joeliton’s pass accuracy [79.3%] was also far superior to Rondon’s [69.9%] and WhoScored also gave the Brazilian a much better overall rating for his performances of 7.21 out of 10.
Although Rondon is better in the air – he won 4.6 aerials duels per league match compared to Joelinton’s 2.3 – the Hoffenheim ace appears as though he could be a superb addition to Steve Bruce’s strikeforce before the start of next season.
We have waited a long time for this deal to get wrapped up, so hopefully it doesn’t take any longer than what Kicker has reported.
