In the summer of 2019, when Steve Bruce was still arranging the furniture in his new St James’ Park office, Newcastle United were attempting to pay well over-the-odds for a Brazilian forward with a less-than-prolific goalscoring record.
And no, we are not talking about Joelinton.
Shortly after Newcastle forked over £40 million to make a Hoffenheim hitman their new record signing, the Premier League giants attempted to tie up a deal for a 20-year-old turning heads at Vasco da Gama.
It was reported at the time that Steve Nickson, the club’s head of recruitment, had flown to Brazil himself – these were pre-pandemic days after all – to watch the highly-rated Marrony in person.
The Chronicle backed up those claims too, stating that Marrony had emerged as a player of interest for a club looking to add a Iberian lilt to a Geordie dressing room.
So why the move didn’t go ahead, however, is anyone’s guess.
Perhaps Nickson had his doubts about a man who, for all his potential, had scored just four times in 34 Brazilian Serie A games during the 2019 season. Perhaps Newcastle felt that a move to the most high-profile and high-pressure would have been a classic case of ‘too much, too soon’.
What happened to Marrony after Newcastle move didn’t happen?
Either way, Marrony’s goalscoring record since those Newcastle links emerged two years ago is not much better than Joelinton’s during the same period, despite plying his trade in a league with far less quality.
A move to Atletico Mineiro in 2020 has not gone to plan and, according to new claims coming out of Brazil this week, Marrony is available for as little as £3 million these days (Globo Esporte).
The now-22-year-old striker is in talks with Midtjylland, the Danish giants who will take on Celtic in tonight’s Champions League qualifiers.
To give Marrony the benefit of the doubt, Midtjylland are a club who pride themselves upon intelligent, low-cost signings, frequently bringing in up-and-coming talents on the cheap before selling them on for a profit.
At just 22, absolutely nobody should be writing off Marrony just yet.
But at least Newcastle only hampered Bruce with one struggling Brazilian during his first few weeks on Tyneside.
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