Newcastle United are interested in Inter Milan’s Hakan Calhanoglu, according to Italian outlet Calciomercato Web.
The lowdown
Central midfielder Calhanoglu only joined Inter last summer, making a cross-city move from AC Milan as a free agent.
And he’s actually been heavily involved so far this season, starting five of Inter’s six Serie A matches as well as their Champions League Group C opener against Bayern Munich.
The 28-year-old, who can also play as an attacking midfielder and left winger, has two years left on his contract.
The latest
The report states that Inter are ready to sell Calhanoglu if they receive ‘the right offer’.
The Nerazzurri apparently value him in the region of €30million, which equates to £26million.
Calhanoglu has been ‘in the sights’ of Newcastle ‘in recent months’, with other Premier League sides interested too.
Significantly, Inter already have a replacement lined up in Atalanta’s Ruslan Malinovskyi.
The verdict
Calhanoglu boasts a fairly strong record for Inter, scoring or assisting 23 goals in 53 appearances for the club (9G, 14A).
And it’s a signing that could seriously excite Newcastle fans given the Turkish midfielder’s flair for the spectacular.
Since the start of the 2014/15 season, he’s scored 20 goals from outside the penalty area and, over the course of his career as a whole, he’s netted 24 direct free-kicks. To put that into perspective, Kieran Trippier has just eight for club and one for country.
His scarcely believable dead-ball effort in Hamburg’s 3-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund in 2014 has been viewed 5.2 million times on YouTube.