Brazil’s manager shares what he’s noticed about Joelinton in training this week

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The most transformed player in Newcastle United’s history is hoping to make his international debut on Saturday for Brazil.

If someone had told you back in 2020 that Newcastle‘s number nine, Joelinton would be called up to represent Brazil you’d have wondered what parallel dimension you’d slipped through, but here we are in 2023 waiting to see if the £40million signing make his debut this weekend.

Not only are we waiting to see if he gets on the pitch for Brazil, we’re actually wondering what took them so long to call him up.

Joelinton was overlooked for Brazil by former coach Tite

Since Eddie Howe moved Joelinton into the midfield and turned him from misfiring striker into a world-class box-to-box midfielder, fans and pundits have been calling for the 26-year-old to be selected for his nation.

Former Brazil coach, Tite clearly didn’t fancy Joelinton and opted not to take the chance on him. After leaving the role following the World Cup, Joelinton’s route to the promised land became clearer and new coach, Ramon Menezes has made J7’s dreams come true.

Menezes clearly isn’t regretting his decision either saying recently (via The Athletic): “He’s shown himself to be strong and dynamic with very good intensity.

“He can play three roles in midfield and he has a different profile to the players we brought into the squad before.”

There are few players in world football who deserve this more

Joelinton showed his fellow countrymen exactly what he can do in training with a brilliant goal in training that did the rounds on Twitter.

If Joelinton can play some part in Brazil’s upcoming fixtures it would be the culmination of the past 19 months of hard work with Eddie Howe.

If he could score then you’d be hard pressed to find a player who deserves it more in world football. I’d probably celebrate it as much as a Newcastle goal.