Newcastle’s summer signing Allan Saint-Maximin is already emerging as a cult hero among Toon fans, after some scintillating displays since recovering from his thigh injury.
His pace and silky skills constantly have supporters out of their seats whenever he is on the ball, and he is everything Newcastle fans, or football fans in general, love to see in a player.
His pace is electric, and his ball control is sensational – he even tried a rainbow flick over lanky Sebastien Haller on Saturday – which has already endeared him the Geordie faithful.
Eerily, a Newcastle reporter for the Chronicle predicted Saint-Maximin’s rainbow flick just prior to him signing in August, when describing him as Newcastle’s “new maverick”.
Ciaran Kelly wrote: “The 22-year-old will already be visualising that first trademark step over or rainbow flick in his head ahead of his Premier League debut against Arsenal next week.”
Allan Saint-Maximin could lure fans to games on his own
He is a box office player in the truest sense of the word, and just knowing he will be playing will soon have football fans around the country watching Newcastle’s televised games, just to see what he may do next.
But the love-affair between the fans and Saint-Maximin seems mutual, with the player going over to the away end after Saturday’s win, to give his shirt to a young supporter.
And when his gesture was mentioned on Twitter, the player replied to it by heaping praise on the fans, lifting his hero status to even greater heights.
Toon fans were quick to respond in kind to their talismanic star, and it seems the Newcastle romance story of the season has many more chapters to be written yet.
Here are a few of the replies to Saint-Maximin’s tweet:
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