Jean-Philippe Mateta was only 20 when Newcastle were first linked with him in summer 2018, after scoring 19 goals in 32 Ligue 2 starts when out on loan from Lyon.
Ironically, Newcastle United ended up instead signing Yoshinori Muto from Mainz for £9.5m and the Bundesliga club spent £9m on Jean-Philippe Mateta as his replacement (see below).
Then in early June this year (2019), Newcastle were also again said to be actively pursuing the striker who had turned 21, after he made 29 Bundesliga appearances and scored 14 goals in the league for Mainz.
It was reported that Newcastle had bid £20m for the striker but despite the interest from clubs, including allegedly Newcastle, Mainz kept hold of the striker.
SportBild (as reported by Sport Witness) now say that Tottenham and Southampton are actively looking to buy Jean-Philippe Mateta in January and are waiting for him to recover from a meniscus operation that has prevented him playing so far this season, so they can see he has fully recovered.
They say that Watford, Everton, Brighton, Cardiff City, AS Monaco and Marseille were the other clubs to contact Mainz in the summer window but that it was Newcastle who made the biggest bid, said to be £25m.
However, with what we know now, it all seems a little unlikely.
We now know that back in June 2019, Rafa Benitez was seeing out the final month of his contract as Mike Ashley had made clear he had no interest in trying to keep the top manager at St James Park.
We also know that Ashley and his people had already set up deals to sign Joelinton and Allan Saint-Maximin for around £60m for the pair.
So it all sounds most unlikely that any such bid for Jean-Philippe Mateta was made.
The Mag – 9 June 2019:
Interesting reports from France are claiming that Newcastle United have made an offer of around £20m for Jean-Philippe Mateta.
The then 20 year old striker was first linked with Newcastle last summer after scoring 19 goals in 32 Ligue 2 starts when out on loan from Lyon.
In an ironic twist of fate, Newcastle United ended up instead signing Yoshinori Muto from Mainz for £9.5m and then the Bundesliga club spent £9m on Jean-Philippe Mateta as his replacement.
The two strikers having ‘slightly’ different seasons in 2018/19.
Whilst Yoshinori Muto was a massive disappointment only scoring one goal and looking way off coping with the Premier League, Jean-Philippe Mateta was excellent for a mediocre Mainz side, scoring 14 goals in 29 Bundesliga starts.
He has the look/profile of one of these French strikers who Newcastle are linked with season after season as their form (and price) progresses, before ending up at a ‘top’ club.
L’Equipe claim that now Newcastle are one of five English clubs to have had bids of between £18m and £22m (20m euros – 25m euros) turned down by Mainz.
The clubs named are Watford, Southampton and Everton, as well as Newcastle United. Also included by the French newspaper are Cardiff City but that doesn’t make any sense, unless it relates to possible interest back in January.
Mainz have said via their Director of Football that this new star player is not for sale but GFFN are reporting that in private the German club would consider selling him if there was an offer closer to £35m (40m euros). Little wonder, as it would represent a profit of around £25m on a player they have had for only one season.
Bottom line though is that Mainz are a selling club and if they get a big enough offer they will sell.
In private, they admit that a bid worth between €35m and €40m for the 21-year-old would be enough to make them seriously consider the p
Mainz are hoping to tie the player down very quickly to a longer contract by offering him more lucrative terms, helping to ensure that if he does leave it will be for as high a price as possible.
The Under 21 European Championships start in seven days time and if Jean-Philippe Mateta (he turns 22 on 28 June) smashes it at the tournament, Mainz are concerned that they may then be forced to take less money than they’d like, unless they have the striker tied down to a longer deal.
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