With the bulk of the Newcastle United squad back in training, Eddie Howe gets his first chance to assess their fitness levels, but he will have to wait a little while longer to see those who were involved in international games.
One player who was involved in international duty was of course, Joelinton, who after months of fans crying out, finally received his first call-up to the Brazil national side.
Joelinton’s Newcastle career would make a fantastic movie, the ultimate underdog story. Coming in on big money with huge expectations and failing to get anywhere near living up to them, then suddenly a new manager comes in, changes his position and suddenly Joelinton is one of the best midfielders in the Premier League.
Joelinton’s Newcastle story sounds like a movie pitch
The ending of the second act would see his heartbreak at missing out on being in the Brazil World Cup squad despite being in better form than Manchester United‘s Fred who, our hero must fight to keep his spirits high.
In the end the hero triumphs: A new regime at International level sees Joelinton’s worth and calls him up for a couple of friendlies to cast a closer eye on him. In a press conference he reveals he was subjected to racial abuse. The 26-year-old is given the nod to start for his country, they’ll be wearing a special kit that sends out an anti-racism message, a perfect coincidence. In his first ever game for his country, Joelinton scores.
If someone pitched that story as a movie they’d probably ask for it to be toned down a bit, but that’s the true story of Joelinton’s Newcastle career. One man who is super proud of him is Eddie Howe who admitted to being delighted for for the man he once described as ‘incredible‘.
Speaking to NUFC TV, Howe mentioned the significance of international football and spoke of Joelinton saying: “I’m always pleased when a player gets the recognition from their Country, we know it’s a big motivation for a lot of the players.
“Delighted for Joelinton, especially, his journey to the Brazilian team has been a brilliant one to witness and to see him score was great.”
Eddie Howe has been instrumental in Joelinton’s rise to glory
It can not be understated just how integral Eddie Howe has been to Joelinton’s story. Having the stones to drop Joelinton back into the middle of the park following Ciaran Clark‘s early dismissal against Norwich changed his career forever. Howe knew J7 was capable of playing that role and he took to it like a duck to water.
It’s not just on the pitch where we’ve seen a big change in Joelinton, if you look at a side-by-side comparison of him when he joined Newcastle and now you can see the huge physical transformation too. Joelinton is a beast and it must be terrifying for opposition players to see that running towards them. Again, Howe’s grueling training methods will no doubt have contributed to this transformation.
There’s a lot of excitement around Newcastle with the addition of Sandro Tonali as well as speculation surrounding other additions, but there’ll also be a buzz around seeing Joelinton again next season as he continues to get better week-by-week.
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