Newcastle United ready to join Inter Milan ‘in the race’ for £17m-rated World Cup star

Newcastle United are reportedly showing an interest in Fulham defender Antonee Robinson after he impressed at the World Cup with the United States.

The pacy left-back appeared in each and every minutes of all four of his side’s fixtures at the tournament as they came through a group consisting of England, Wales and Iran before seeing their hopes of progressing into the quarter-finals ended by a round-of-16 defeat against the Netherlands on Saturday.

Robinson’s performances at the World Cup captured the eye of Tottenham Hotspur defender Matt Doherty, who hailed the left-back ahead of his side’s game against Iran, saying: “Not an easy one today, but I’m going to go with Antonee Robinson of the USA, left-back, athletic, fast. He looks a good player.”

Robinson has also featured heavily in Fulham’s impressive returning to the Premier League, featuring in 13 of the Cottagers’ 15 games so far this season. However, the former Wigan Athletic and Bolton Wanderers defender missed his side’s 4-1 defeat against Newcastle in October as Miguel Almiron, Sean Longstaff and Callum Wilson found the net to give the Magpies a 4-1 win at Craven Cottage.

Serie A giants Inter Milan are said to have shown a significant interest in Robinson and were said to be ‘ready to offer’ around £16m to tempt the Cottagers into parting company with the 25-year-old, just over two years after a potential move to cross-city rivals AC Milan collapsed.

However, TEAMtalk have now claimed Newcastle are ‘ready to join the chase’ for Robinson as they look to strengthen their options at left-back. Dan Burn and Matt Targett have both filled the role over the last year but the Magpies are said to be ‘in the market’ for a new left-sided defender during the January transfer market. United have also been linked with Croatia star Borna Sosa and Benfica left-back Alex Grimaldo over the last two months.