Newcastle United are signing Garang Kuol for just £300,000 with the teenager praised as an ‘X-factor’ player over in his native Australia.
The Magpies are placing a keen focus on signing youngsters for the future alongside the immediate first-team upgrades.
This past summer alone, Newcastle brought in four new youngsters as Jude Smith, Alex Murphy, Jordan Hackett and Charlie McArthur.
These arrivals will hopefully become first-team players down the line and Newcastle are now close to an exciting signing with the future in mind.
Newcastle United are signing Garang Kuol
Sky Sports reported earlier this week that Newcastle are close to securing the signing of Central Coast Mariners attacker Garang Kuol.
Celtic and Borussia Dortmund also want Kuol but it’s Newcastle who are on the verge of an exciting deal.
The Daily Mail now claim that the fee involved for Kuol is just £300,000, which could be a bargain if Kuol reaches his enormous potential.
18-year-old Kuol has hit four goals and one assist in just nine A-League outings for Central Coast Mariners.
A work permit for Kuol to play in England isn’t possible just yet so a January loan move appears to be on the cards.
Kuol has though earned his first Australia cap and is now in contention for a role at the World Cup in Qatar in October.
Kuol has been hailed for weeks now with plaudits raining in for him from anybody who sees him play.
The latest is Lloyd Owusu, who will be familiar to some English fans from his times with Brentford, Sheffield Wednesday and Reading.
Owusu ended his career in Australia and lives over in Sydney, so he has seen what Kuol can provide.
Speaking to Fox Sports, Owusu has suggested that Kuol is an ‘X-factor’ player who is fearless and exciting thanks to his speed and ability to run at defenders.
Owusu added that Kuol would be worth taking to the World Cup because he is ‘different’ and could make an impact off the bench, with Newcastle no doubt hoping to get their deal signed, sealed and delivered before the World Cup just in case other clubs join the race.
“We’re going to talk about Garang, young Garang, that X-factor, very similar to the (Mat) Leckie experience a few years ago when he came through the ranks,” said Owusu. “You bring someone like him who’s exciting, that’s what fans want to see. Someone who’s just fearless, he‘ll just keep running in behind defenders. Like you say, the creativity he did from the right wing, from the ball going out of play for him to try and keep it in, attack down the right wing, nice little composed pass for someone so inexperienced to play the weighted pass in.”
“Like I said, you look at the cycle of World Cup football over many years, every country has probably always done that, have that one little gem that comes through. Again, with someone like that (Kuol), he’s different. He gives you something. He’s got pace, aggression, power, creativity. You bring him on in the last 20 minutes when defenders are getting tired. Defenders don’t want to see a youngster come running at them in the last minutes of the game, pull them down and you can get free kicks, penalties. Personally, someone like him coming on, it’s going to give him a massive boost, it will give him experience going into future World Cups and qualifiers for Australia,” he added.
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