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Newcastle United scouting the in demand Leonardo Koutris – report

5 years ago
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Sunday morning brings reports of Newcastle United having Leonardo Koutris watched ahead of a potential summer bid.

The versatile player can play any position down the left hand side: left-back, left wing-back and left midfield.

Born in Brazil but brought up in Greece he has both Brazilian and Greek citizenship, with his father being from Brazil and his mother from Greece.

Leonardo Koutris though has opted to play for Greece and after playing at various junior levels, made his senior debut in a 1-0 win over Finland in November. On Saturday he played left-back as Greece beat Liechtenstein 2-0 in a European Championships qualifier.

Playing his club football for Olympiakos, Leonardo Koutris has been reported to be a target for West Ham in the past and then in January, the Greek club turned down a £5m offer from Serie A club Genoa.

Now the Mirror are reporting that both Everton and Newcastle United have had scouts watching the Greek international.

The loan deal of Antonio Barreca as proved a waste of time and it always looked like a second rate option offered to Rafa Benitez at the very end of the January transfer window, when he wasn’t backed to buy the left-back he has been wanting to compete with Paul Dummett, since Newcastle were promoted.

With his new preference for a three centre-back system, Leonardo Koutris obviously fits the bill as he is comfortable as a wing-back.

He will turn 24 in July and no doubt Newcastle will be linked with many other potential signings between now and then.

However, Koutris does look like an emerging talent and has been first choice at Olympiakos since joining from Ergotelis in summer 2017. He impressed when playing nine times against the likes of Juventus and Barcelona in the Champions League last season and again this season in the Europa League.

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