Newcastle United midfielder Bruno Guimaraes has congratulated reported Magpies target Lucas Paqueta after being nominated for Ligue 1 Player of the Season.
The season is drawing to a close in many European counties and that means awards will be handed out in the coming weeks.
Over in France, there will be a five-way battle for the Player of the Season award – otherwise known as the UNFP award.
Monaco’s Wissam Ben Yedder, Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe, Marseille’s Dimitri Payet and Rennes ace Martin Terrier make up four of those players.
The other one is Lyon midfielder Paqueta, who has been enjoying a superb season in France.
Paqueta has notched eight goals and six assists in 32 Ligue 1 games and won the Player of the Month award back in October.
The Brazilian playmaker may not be the favourite for the award but he certainly deserves to be in the conversation.
Paqueta’s performances have been so good that there may now be a fight for his signature this summer.
The Chronicle report that Newcastle United and Arsenal are battling for Paqueta in a deal worth around £58million.
Add in wages of around £180,000 and the 24-year-old is a man in demand this summer.
One factor that could work in Newcastle’s favour is that they already have Bruno Guimaraes at the club.
Guimaraes left Lyon for Newcastle in January and has quickly become a fan favourite on Tyneside.
Guimaraes admitted just days ago that he would love to see Paqueta join Newcastle, claiming the pair are best friends.
With Paqueta nominated for this prestigious award, Guimaraes has taken to Twitter to send a message to his former teammate.
Guimaraes simply stated ‘you are the best’ as he offered a message of support to Paqueta, sending Newcastle fans into a frenzy as you can well imagine.
Newcastle may now try to engineer the dream of Paqueta and Guimaraes playing together once again next season.
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