According to Transfermarkt, Lutz Pfannenstiel has rejected an offer from Newcastle United in favour of St Louis City SC.
Reports broke in June surrounding Newcastle’s interest in Pfannenstiel, with the Daily Mail suggesting that he was being eyed up for a technical director role at St James’ Park.
At that point, it was thought that the interest in Pfannenstiel was dependent on the club’s proposed Saudi-led takeover, which has since fallen through.
Now though, it’s stated that Pfannenstiel did in fact have an offer on the table from Newcastle, but he has rejected them.
Pfannenstiel has also snubbed Inter Milan, instead becoming the sporting director of Major League Soccer expansion side St Louis City SC.
“Obviously, I won’t name any other club names directly because I signed for another team,” Pfannenstiel said. “It would be unfair to go into details, but, of course, after I left Fortuna Düsseldorf, I was in the headlines, and they said that there was a lot of interest from other clubs. I was talking to a few guys, and there was interest there, but I was just in love with the idea of [joining St. Louis]. I am happy and thrilled to be in America,” he added.
The German is quite the character; he holds a FIFA record having been the only player to play in all six FIFA confederations during a playing career that spanned 27 clubs.
Pfannenstiel has even spent 100 days in prison for alleged match-fixing but was later cleared, stopped breathing three times during a collision with Clayton Donaldson and then released a book about his bizarre life entitled ‘The Unstoppable Keeper’.
Pfannenstiel had been sporting director at Fortuna Dusseldorf before making this move to America, and Newcastle must now look elsewhere if they still want somebody in a similar role.
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