Newcastle are showing serious interest in a deal to sign 20-year-old Brazilian full back Carlos Daniel, according to the player’s agent.
The youngster is yet to make his first team debut for Atletico Mineiro but is believed to have grabbed the attention of several scouts in Europe – particularly at the U20 Copa Sao Paulo in January, a competition similar to the FA Youth Cup.
His agent revealed that contact with Newcastle began back in June and the club have monitored his progress ever since, with one of the directors – thought to be Steve Nickson, Head of Recruitment – being particularly interested and ‘frequently requesting’ statistics on the player.
Here’s what his represenatitive, Anderson Fia, told Globo Esporte about our interest:
“The contact has been going on since June of last year, it has now been intensified again, because they followed the Copinha.
“The team was bought by Mohammed bin Salman, but the director continued, and he liked Carlos a lot.”
Despite the interest, there is still yet to be a bid made for the player and he is currently protected by a €50 million release clause.
While safety is no guarantee yet, the club currently sit 14th and are on their best run of form for 11 years, allowing them to have one eye on the summer and how they plan to invest into the squad.