According to Arena, Malaysian ‘wonderkid’ Luqman Hakim has received an offer to sign for Newcastle United.
The 18-year-old talent was named in The Guardian’s list of ‘top 60 young footballers of 2019’ last year and has been tipped to make the move to Europe this summer.
After graduating from Malaysia’s national football development programme, Hakim secured a 5-year deal with K.V. Kortrijk last year – a Belgian top flight side owned by Cardiff City’s Vincent Tan.
He was then expected to training with the Welsh Championship side until he turned 18 in March this year, however that arrangement was postponed, seeing him play with Malaysian giants FA Selangor instead.
The players agent, Lionel Foy, has claimed there are several Premier League clubs interested in signing the highly-rated forward, however it is not yet known if he would be granted a work permit.
A potential new addition to our Under-23 set up or some pie in the sky from Arena?
Who knows, but here’s what The Guardian had to say about him when naming the Malaysian star in their ‘top 60 young footballers of 2019’, revealing how he was the joint top scorer at the 2018 Asia Under-16 championship:
“Malaysia have waited years for someone to replace the late and much lamented Mokhtar Dahari, who put Arsenal to the sword back in 1975, and this striker has been tipped as one who just may be able to fill those sizeable shoes. Joint top scorer at the 2018 Asian Under-16 championships, this fleet-footed graduate of Malaysia’s national football development programme has caught the attention of Japanese clubs. In September, however, he signed for the Vincent Tan-owned Belgian club K.V. Kortrijk. He will remain in Malaysia for the time being before training with another Tan club, Cardiff City.”
