It wasn’t the greatest weekend for Newcastle United but loanee Yankuba Minteh at least had something to shout about scoring for Feyenoord.
Newcastle moved quickly to snap up young Gambian forward Yankuba Minteh from Danish side Odense this summer picking up the youngster for £7million.
As quickly as he arrived he left. A loan move to Eredivisie champions Feyenoord was agreed for the season, Minteh packed his bags and headed to the Netherlands and he’s now off the the mark scoring in Feyenoord’s 5-1 demolition of FC Utrecht on Sunday.
Minteh scored on his Feyenoord debut in pre-season
Thanks to some barked orders from the touchline following a penalty award, Minteh bagged a goal on his debut in a pre-season friendly after Feyenoord boss Arne Slot could be hurt shouting instructions for him to take the spot kick.
That will no doubt have inspired confidence in the 19-year-old, and if his confidence was low then there was no sign of it when he netted Feyenoord’s fifth goal against FC Utrecht in the third minute of stoppage time on Sunday.
A long ball found Minteh through on goal one-on-one where he calmly rounded the goalkeeper and then skipped past the last defender, Mark van den Maarel, who got back to cover the line before firing a shot into the net from a yard out.
Newcastle could have a star on their hands with Minteh
That clearly didn’t go down well with the Utrecht right-back who, according to the report in the NL Times, kicked the ball at Minteh as he ran off to celebrate.
Minteh showed the type of composure that’s been sorely missing in Newcastle’s games so far this season and if that’s a sign of what he can bring, then I doubt he will be loaned out again next season.
Hopefully he now takes that confidence into the next game and beyond and works his way into Arne Slot’s starting eleven so when he comes back he’s had plenty of game time and is ready to challenge the Newcastle squad for his place.
Receive a digest of our best Newcastle content each week direct to your mailbox
