Sandro Tonali is edging closer to becoming a Newcastle United player with reports stating that Dan Ashworth was meeting with AC Milan officials to close the deal last night.
While Dan Ashworth works his magic we’ve looked into the archives and found a superb quote from Roma and Italy legend Francesco Totti speaking about Sandro Tonali back in 2020.
If Totti still stands by what he said then Newcastle are very close to bagging an unbelievable talent.
Francesco Totti compared Sandro Tonali to some true greats
At the time Tonali was just 19 and still playing for Brescia, but Totti could see the potential in him likening him to Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso.
“He will become one of the top central players in the world. Like [Steven] Gerrard, [Daniele] De Rossi or [Frank] Lampard,” said Totti.
“He is a mixture of Pirlo and Gattuso. He has everything a player can have. Incredible change of pace, he’s technically good and head-wise, he’s always calm. Both in important games and in easy games.”
Since then Tonali moved to AC Milan and has gone from strength to strength, making his way into the senior Italy national team while retaining his captaincy of the U21s.
Newcastle and Milan are in the final stages of talks
And soon the 23-year-old midfielder could be pulling on the famous black and white and playing Champions League football for Newcastle.
It’s incredible to see Newcastle fishing in this talent pool so soon after seeing a loan deal for Hamza Choudhury fall apart due to lack of funds.
The deal is progressing well at the time of writing with Fabrizio Romano saying this morning that Newcastle and Milan are entering the final stages of talks. By the looks of things Newcastle could have this one sewn up by the weekend which would be an absolutely phenomenal piece of business.
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