Former Newcastle target Hugo Ekitike’s PSG dream could be coming to a premature end

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Last summer saw a huge battle between Newcastle United and Paris Saint-Germain for young Reims forward Hugo Ektitke.

Newcastle looked to have the deal all sewn up with the French wonderkid seemingly all set to join Eddie Howe‘s Newcastle revolution for £26million, but at the last minute PSG swooped in and took the talented forward to the French Capital. It was a move that angered Newcastle fans as it seemed to be driven by his agent working behind the player’s back and pulling all kinds of dirty tricks, using Newcastle as leverage for a better deal at PSG.

Now it seems after just one season at the French champions, Hugo Ekitike might be transfer listed. According to a report from La Parisien, PSG boss Christophe Galtier is ready to part ways with the 20-year-old. While Ekitike is currently on loan from Reims, the move does become permanent at the end of the season, at which point it’s looking like Ekitike will be transfer listed.

Ekitike needed to oust Mbappe, Messi or Neymar

It was always going to be a tall order for the France U21 international to break into the PSG starting lineup ahead of the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, which is why the move never really made sense to Newcastle fans.

Christophe Galtier hasn’t exactly been overly kind in his assessment of Ekitke this season. After the striker publicly declared his unhappiness at not being used, Galtier said (via The Sun): “I told him that I was in part responsible, but that he was also responsible.

“When you have the attacking trio that we have at PSG that requires a lot of commitment and resilience and you have to keep going.

“Clearly, he is a talented player, who must make up for his lack of game time in training.

“We have said that he must work more, must bring more intensity so that when he comes on, he can add more. He has lost confidence because he hasn’t played much.”

Ekitike has likely burnt his bridges at Newcastle

It’s understood that Ektitke still has admirers and won’t be short of offers if he is to be moved on from PSG, but whether Newcastle return with another bid this summer is doubtful. Not only do we now have Alexander Isak – who for my money is a much better signing anyway – it’s unlikely that the club will forget how they were treated in the summer when they tried to deal with Ekitike before.

It’s a shame as there’s clearly a talented player in Ekitike, he is just keeping poor counsel and listening to bad advice. Things would have been so much different had he signed for Newcastle over PSG, he’d have been given much more game time, superb support form Eddie Howe and his team and could have become a legend. Instead he’s set potentially his career back a few years.