Newcastle United have been linked with Venezuela starlet Hurtado.
Is the new Tino Asprilla on his way to Newcastle United this summer? If the Magpies can fight off competition from West Brom and Borussia Dortmund, he might well be.
According to Grupo La Provincia, Newcastle have made the first move to sign young Venezuelan forward Jan Carlos Hurtado; a player who has also caught the eye of the Baggies and the Bundesliga giants if Marca is to be believed.
Now, before you fire up Wikipedia and delve into YouTube for grainy, amateur footage of the 20-year-old in action, we will let Hurtado himself tell Newcastle fans what they could possibly expect.
“I’m a number 9 who likes to make diagonal runs and score goals,” Hurtado told Infobae in March when asked to sum up his style.
He even took the step to compare himself to a Newcastle cult hero with the publication describing him as the ‘clone of Asprilla’.
The jet-heeled forward currently plays in Argentina with Gimnasia y Esgrima, his performances catapulting him into the Venezuela squad. He made his international debut, alongside The Magpies’ current number nine Salomon Rondon, in a 3-1 thrashing of Argentina in March.
Though if Newcastle do manage to lure the £7.5 million-rated Hurtado to Tyneside, they will be hoping to see more European hat-tricks and less machine gun sprees from a player who is hoping to follow in Asprilla’s footsteps, at least on the pitch.
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