Just 66 mins; £30m ace hasn’t started a single game since Newcastle snub

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It turns out that forcing your way into Paris Saint-Germain’s frontline is no easy task. Who’d have thought it? It’s almost as if the Ligue 1 champions have a veritable galaxy of attacking stars at their disposal; Hugo Ekitike merely a red dwarf up against the blistering supernovas of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar. 

So far, across five league appearances, Ekitike has played just 66 minutes of football. He’s yet to start a game under Christophe Galtier.

His time will come, of course. The 20-year-old signed from Reims was always likely to be ‘one for the future’. A project signing with a view to the long-term. But it surely won’t be long before that old debate rears it’s head again. The one that always emerges when talented young players are struggling for opportunities at a European giant. 

Does honing your talents against some of the planet’s finest footballers in a midweek training session make up for spending your Saturday’s sitting on the sidelines? Will a season of cameo appearances at PSG help or hinder Ekitike’s development? 

Hugo Ekitike chose PSG over Newcastle United

Newcastle United supporters still burned by Ekitike’s very public reluctance to take on a frontline role in Eddie Howe’s revolution will no doubt argue that one of Europe’s most exciting youngsters would have been better off on the banks of the Tyne.

If Ekitike had joined Newcastle, when the Magpies agreed a £30 million fee with Reims, it probably would have been he who was starting against Liverpool at Anfield during that most valiant of defeats. 

Instead, those opportunities will now fall to Alexander Isak. And Ekitike will have to content himself with 12 minutes off the bench against Brest. 

“I’m not setting aside everything Newcastle did for me,” Ekitike told Le10 Sport recently. “If I had to go abroad, I would have gone there.  

“But when PSG wants you and you’re French, you can’t refuse.” 

Ekitike was in no mood to break from such tradition either. But with the ink still drying on Mbappe’s contract, with Messi and Neymar back to their glittering best, his first start in Ligue 1 may have to wait that bit longer.