The Magpies are close to completing a big-money deal for the Hoffenheim striker, with Ralf Rangnick “amused” by talk of his side making a bid <\/p>\n
Ralf Rangnick concedes RB Leipzig would not be able to match Newcastle United’s reported \u20ac60 million (\u00a352m\/$68m) bid for Joelinton, although he doubts the Magpies would make such a move.<\/p>\n
Both Leipzig and Newcastle are said to hold an interest in Hoffenheim’s Brazilian striker, with reports in Germany suggesting the Premier League club are close to a record-breaking deal.<\/p>\n
Rafael Benitez’s men broke their long-standing transfer record in January as they paid Atlanta United in the region of \u00a321m ($27m) for playmaker Miguel Almiron, who starred on his full debut against Huddersfield Town on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Article continues below<\/span> <\/p>\n Juve on alert: Exiled Icardi may have already played his final game for Inter Sarri vindicated for dropping Kepa as Chelsea & Pedro impress in Spurs win Magnificent Mane takes centre stage as league leaders Liverpool put on a five-star show Lukaku sends reminder that his Man Utd career is far from over <\/p>\n Despite this, Rangnick, discussing Leipzig’s interest in Joelinton, is sceptical that Newcastle would shell out a massive fee, as controversial owner Mike Ashley looks to sell the club.<\/p>\n He did acknowledge that the purported asking price of \u20ac60m would also rule Leipzig out of the running for the 22-year-old, though.<\/p>\n “I only read that Newcastle want to pay [roughly] \u00a350m for him,” Rangnick said of the reports, speaking before Leipzig face Hoffenheim and Joelinton on Monday.<\/p>\n “Coming with this fee, the player would get a fitting contract. We are not able to pay this, whoever the player is.<\/p>\n “If these numbers are true, [Leipzig could not pay it]. Although it would surprise me, because Mike Ashley, who has never paid more than around \u00a320m for a player, is thinking about selling the club and wants to make a profit.<\/p>\n “That he, at the end of his tenure at Newcastle, would buy a player for so much money is hard to believe.<\/p>\n “But it doesn’t matter, even if the fee is a bit below that. We will never be a club who can afford such players. It amused me a bit in these past days, reading this and also being linked to the player.<\/p>\n “He is a great player but there are more great players – at Hoffenheim and at other teams in the Bundesliga.”<\/p>\n Joelinton has scored 10 goals in all competitions this season, having spent his first two years at Hoffenheim out on loan with Rapid Vienna.<\/p>\n He extended his Hoffenheim contract through to 2022 in November.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Magpies are close to completing a big-money deal for the Hoffenheim striker, with Ralf Rangnick “amused” by talk of his side making a bid Ralf Rangnick concedes RB Leipzig would not be able to match Newcastle United’s reported \u20ac60 million (\u00a352m\/$68m) bid for Joelinton, although he doubts the Magpies would make such a move….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/392\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Editors' Picks<\/h3>\n