Newcastle United are reportedly once again in pursuit of Hugo Ekitike, a player Eddie Howe rates very highly indeed.
Fabrizio Romano has revealed that Newcastle are interested in Ekitike, who has come close to joining the club before.
Ekitike rejected Newcastle in 2022 but is seemingly a target again at St James’ Park.
The 23-year-old has rebuilt himself at Eintracht Frankfurt. When snubbing Newcastle’s advances, he moved to Paris Saint-Germain but struggled for game time.
Still, a move to the Bundesliga side has worked wonders for him. The striker moved to Germany on loan in February 2024 before making it a permanent stay later that year and has since scored 26 goals in 64 games for them.
Eddie Howe is familiar with Ekitike, and confirmed exactly what he thought of the striker when speaking back in 2023.
Eddie Howe has no hard feelings towards Hugo Ekitike
Howe has confirmed he has no hard feelings towards Ekitike despite the fact he rejected Newcastle after a lot of work had gone into the deal with his boyhood club, Reims.
The Newcastle United manager described the forward as “very talented” and admitted it was “no secret” that the Magpies were really keen on a move.
Speaking from a pre-season camp in Austria in July 2023, Howe said: “It’s no secret that we really liked Hugo and we worked hard to try and do that deal.
“He’s a very talented lad and he decided to go to PSG.
“I have no hard feelings toward him and wish him well in the next phase of his career. I really do wish him luck.
“But it is an example of the types of clubs we’re competing with to try and improve our squad.”
Hugo Ekitike’s huge market value
Such has been the level of his form at Frankfurt, the German club want huge money for the player.
In fact, Frankfurt want more than £85million for Ekitike. That is a huge amount of money and it’s difficult to see Newcastle paying that unless Alexander Isak leaves this summer.
While having both Ekitike and Isak available in the Newcastle United squad would be a statement of intent, shelling out such big money on a player who surely wouldn’t start ahead of the superstar Swede does not feel viable.
Perhaps one day, however, Ekitike and Newcastle will be united.
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