Newcastle United were close to signing Sassuolo star Marlon Santos from La Liga giants Barcelona.
Sassuolo defender Marlon Santos has admitted to France Football that he could have joined Newcastle United from Barcelona, only for work permit problems to scupper the deal.
In the summer of 2018, a Brazilian centre-half found himself at the centre of a transfer tug-of-war with clubs all over England keen to snap him up. But, despite links with Southampton, West Ham, Everton and, yes, Newcastle, Marlon would eventually end up in Italy instead.
The 25-year-old joined Sassuolo for a bargain £5 million after an impressive loan spell at Nice, where he would play alongside current Magpies star Allan-Saint Maximin.
And, if it wasn’t for some troublesome red tape, Marlon would perhaps be sharing a dressing room once again with a winger with ‘incredible potential’.
“I could have gone to Newcastle, it would have been good,” says a man who made just two La Liga appearances in Barcelona colours. “But there was a problem with the work permit.
“It was a great pleasure to come to Sassuolo because it is a beautiful team with boys with enormous potential. Jérémie Boga, Junior Traoré, Manuel Locatelli…really strong boys.”
Newcastle are not exactly short of centre-backs right now, however, with Jamaal Lascelles, Federico Fernandez, Fabian Schar, Ciaran Clark and Florian Lejeune all fighting for a place in Steve Bruce’s starting XI.
But with the Magpies set to be taken over by a Saudi billionaire in the shape of Mohammed Bin Salman, it remains to be seen whether they will make a renewed effort to bring Marlon to Tyneside this summer.
One thing is for certain; he’d cost a lot more than £5 million these days.
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