Newcastle United official at work in Germany – Magpies ‘hot’ for very impressive swoop, have work to do

Newcastle United are the latest club to join the chase for Bayer Leverkusen’s young star Florian Wirtz.

That’s according to this week’s edition of SportBild, who say the Tyneside club are ‘hot’ to sign the 18-year-old.

The Magpies sent British scout Geoff Lockhart to watch the midfielder in action against FC Köln at RheinEnergieStadion on Sunday.

Newcastle are currently without a permanent manager and are in the relegation zone. They have got the financial backing of their new owners, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, meaning they can invest big to sign top quality players like Wirtz.

It’s claimed Lockhart was in Germany to watch the player in action against Köln. SportBild say the Germany international moving to St James’ Park is ‘ruled out’ for now because both Leverkusen and his plan would be to change clubs in 2023.

This is also the time where Newcastle hope to be in the top half of the table and they would then be in a better position to sign Wirtz, if he continues to shine until then. If that happens, experts predict the attacker could be valued around €100m.

SportBild point out other top clubs are also looking at Wirtz and are trying to ‘establish a connection’ with his family. They haven’t made any offers as of now, but are signaling their interest in him.

This means Newcastle will have a lot of work to do if they are to convince the Leverkusen star to join them over other clubs in the future.