Newcastle United’s summer signing Allan Saint-Maximin had an IQ level of 145 before he even signed his first professional contract with Saint-Etienne, according to The Chronicle.
The newspaper claims that the 22-year-old, who arrived at St James’ Park from French side OGC Nice a couple of weeks ago, is an extremely intelligent young man.
Indeed, before he even put pen to paper as a pro for Ligue 1 outfit Saint-Etienne, tests revealed that he recorded the aforementioned score in an IQ test.
That’s a remarkable achievement, and it speaks to the sort of player the Reds have picked up from Patrick Vieira’s side.
OPINION
This is interesting and incredibly unusual. When you think of Saint-Maximin and you look at the way he plays, you wouldn’t necessarily assume that he is an exceptionally intelligent young man. However, to score 145 on an IQ test you have to be pretty sharp between the ears, and it appears that that is the case with the Frenchman. It was clear when Saint-Maximin arrived on Tyneside that he had a phenomenal grasp of the English language, which isn’t always the case for players coming from abroad. That’s going to help him adapt to the Premier League, but it also speaks to how clever he is that he is bi-lingual as well as being a tremendously gifted footballer. All this will do is get the Newcastle fans even more excited to see Saint-Maximin play competitive football. The knock on the winger in France was that he made poor decisions in key areas, but hopefully his intelligence will help him improve in that aspect now he’s in England.
