Young striker Santiago Munoz has been ‘erased’ at Newcastle United, just months after his arrival from Santos Laguna.
The young striker arrived at St James to much fanfare back in August, with the story being picked up all over the world.
For many, that was a bit odd given he’s a young player whose barely made his way in the game, but it was because he shares his name with a fictional character from the movie Goal.
In that film, a young Mexican striker makes his way from United States to Newcatle, where he learns the rigours of English football to become a star at the club and guide them into the Champions League.
It’s your typical fairytale story and the idea of it potentially happening in real life predicatably caught the imagination and filled newspaper and website space nicely.
Except, reality isn’t like that, as Mexico’s Futbol Total explain today. They say Munoz has been ‘erased’ by Newcastle, not getting minutes or even being considered by the Under 23s.
He’s been ‘completely sidelined’ by manager Elliott Dickman, who hasn’t even afforded the youngster a place on the bench.
Munoz has even been completely absent on social media, with Newcastle making much less of a fuss over him than they were when he originally signed. Indeed, he ‘seems to have disappeared’.
It’s left him in a ‘difficult situation’, with his current loan deal running until 2022 but Newcastle extremely unlikely to exercise the purchase option they negotiated.
It’s all a far cry from just a month ago when Munoz was sharing his happiness far and wide. For example, he told the Futbol with Grant Wahl podcast: “I am very, very happy. It’s something that is fabulous. The club is very good. All the people in the club are very good. The city, I really like it.”
Now he’s neither seen nor heard, and the idea that the magic of Goal could be repeated in real life is very quickly dying away.
