Newcastle United £7m signing pictured training at new club as loan move made official

Newcastle United summer signing Yankuba Minteh has started pre-season with Eredivisie champions Feyenoord.

The Magpies paid £7million to sign the 18-year-old winger from Danish side Odense Boldklub last month and he will spend the 2023-24 campaign in the Netherlands.

The loan move was made official on Saturday (July 1) and the Gambian’s preparations for the new season are already underway. Minteh has been pictured in training with the Dutch club, who host PEC Zwolle on Saturday in their pre-season opener.

Newcastle will keep a close eye on Minteh’s development after sporting director Dan Ashworth reference the player’s “high profile”.

“We are very pleased to be bringing a player with Yankuba’s high potential to Newcastle United,” said Ashworth. “He has done extremely well in his first full season in Denmark, and he has a promising career ahead of him.

“We look forward to working with him in this exciting phase of his development, and we’re excited to see how he performs at Feyenoord, a club that also has a strong development record of its own.

“As well as supporting the first team with players for the here and now, we have a clear philosophy to invest in emerging talent and we want to provide a player pathway that will help to build and sustain long-term success.”

Minteh, whose manager at OB Andreas Alm handed Alexander Isak his debut at AIK in 2016, has enjoyed an impressive breakthrough into senior football having scored four goals and provided six assists in 22-23.

OB sporting director Bjorn Wesstrom revealed several clubs had enquired about Minteh before opting to join Newcastle.

“I have been in dialogue with a number of top clubs, but we don’t know how it will end,” he said. “There are always many rumours about a player who has the stats he has, and that is positive. We must have recruited him well.”

While Newcastle compete in the Champions League next season, Minteh could too feature in the competition. Feyenoord are set to feature in Pot 1 after winning the Eredivisie. Newcastle, meanwhile, will be in Pot 4.