29-year-old Newcastle player is about to be given contract extension after accepting new role

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One Newcastle United player is set to be given a contract extension after accepting a new kind of role at the club for the foreseeable future.

Emil Krafth has been on the fringes of the squad this season with Kieran Trippier and Tino Livramento covering the right-back position, but he’s remained happy at the club.

According to this new report from Fotboll Direkt, Newcastle will offer to extend the contract of the defender who is happy to be given playing time at the end of games like he was given against Aston Villa.

Krafth happy to take up new role at Newcastle

It’s fairly obvious to anyone that Krafth is not going to be a starting player at Newcastle any time soon unless this current injury crisis gets dramatically worse in the second half of the season.

One positive for the Swedish international is his ability to play at right-back or centre-back, so he’s a handy player to have for Eddie Howe who would like to have as much strength in depth as possible.

The 29-year-old has played just five times in the Premier League this season though for the first couple of months he was still recovering from an ACL injury that he picked up in the Carabao Cup in 2022.

He’s absolutely not under the impression that the playing time is going to dramatically increase now that he’s fit, but he’s willing to accept this new role of seeing games out and sign this contract extension.

Krafth signing Newcastle contract despite interest elsewhere

This report has also suggested that Krafth was the subject of interest from a number of clubs including Malmo, Copenhagen and Brondby who all surely would have offered him more regular minutes.

Instead, the 29-year-old clearly feels like he still has work left to do at Newcastle and has committed his future to the club despite knowing it will be a bit-part role.

The fact Krafth would be willing to reject any offers from other clubs just once again highlights the sense of community Howe has built at the club that even the fringe players feel so heavily involved in the results.