Newcastle aim to bring Nigerian striker Umar Sadiq to the Premier League during January transfer window

NEWLY-acquired English Premier league side Newcastle United has set its sights ion Nigerian striker Umar Sadiq with a view to prosing him away from his Spanish club Almeria during the January transfer window in a €25m deal.

Last month, Newcastle were bought by a consortium made up of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, PCP Capital Partners and RB Sports & Media in a deal worth £305m. Its new owners have vowed to take the club back to the Uefa Champions League but to do this will require a massive investment in new players.

Already, the club has appointed Eddie Howe as its new manager and given him to strengthen the squad when transfers commence on December 31. Almeria have unearthed hidden attacking gems in recent years, including current Benfica star Darwin Nunez and Sadiq is valued by Newcastle as being just as good.

A native of Kaduna State, Sadiq is a well-travelled footballer who has had stints with Roma, Torino, Bologna, Partizan Belgrade and Glasgow Rangers. He made his bog breakthrough at Partizan, scoring 23 goals in 52 appearances before joining Almeria last summer, for a fee of just €5m.

This season, he has been ion fire, however, as 27 of Sadiq’s 42 goal involvements came in his debut campaign in the Spanish Segunda Division with Almeria last season. Unfortunately, he was not able to help Almeria secure promotion back to top-flight, as he failed to score in the two promotion play-offs matches against Girona.

Nevertheless, Sadiq, 24, has hit the ground running this season, scoring seven goals in 15 matches. His contributions have helped his team remain top of the Segunda Division but Almeira might not be able to keep hold of their star asset for long, as he keeps being linked with a move to the English Premier League.

Tottenham Hotspur have also been linked with him in the past, so we could potentially witness a transfer duel between the two teams during the forthcoming January window. Sadiq's relatively cheap price tag of €25m is unlikely to be a problem for the new Newcastle owners, who have deep pockets.