Newcastle are closely monitoring Matheus Franca after a failed January bid

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Newcastle United had a bid rejected for Matheus Franca by Flamengo in January but they still retain an interest in the Brazilian wonderkid.

A report from Lance in Brazil credit Newcastle, Arsenal and Crystal Palace with an interest in the 19-year-old attacking midfielder.

According to Lance, Newcastle had a £16million bid refused for Matheus Franca by Flamengo and the Brazilian club reacted by offering the youngster a new contract which runs to 2027.

However, that doesn’t seem to have deterred Newcastle who are preparing a fresh bid this summer. They will face competition not just from Crystal Palace and Arsenal but also Bayer Leverkusen who also made an approach in January.

Franca is very highly rated in Brazil after a fantastic season in the Brazilian Serie A last term where he managed to score four goals in 17 appearances for Flamengo, the bulk of which were substitute appearances.

Flamengo are obviously very aware of what a talent they have as well a the interest in him and will therefore not let him leave without making sure they get paid what they feel he’s worth. Reports towards the end of January claiming that Flamengo would want negotiations to start at £20million.

The Brazilian side also wanted to include a huge sell-on percentage clause in a deal for Franca which is likely to still be the case, which could put Newcastle off a deal.

Franca made his way onto the NXGN list of 50 best wonderkids and in their write up they touch on the new contract that Flamengo gave him saying that it includes a £177million release clause which shows how strong their negotiating position is.

Obviously Newcastle are highly unlikely to fork out to activate the release clause but it does mean that Flamengo can dig their heels in when it comes to negotiations with such a high clause and five years left on his deal.

With that in mind, I’m skeptical that this one can work for Newcastle. In fact unless the player himself really wants the move and starts to make noise at Flamengo.

With Arsenal, Leverkusen and Real Madrid interested too, Franca could have his pick of top clubs which means that Newcastle would really have to prove themselves to be serious. Of course football is a funny old game and we still can’t rule out Crystal Palace. Stranger things have happened.