BREAKING: Newcastle United Sign Joelinton

Newcastle United have offcially announced their completed signing of Joelinton for a club record fee. The fee is said to be in the region of £40M, topping the figure paid for Michael Owen in 2005 and Miguel Almiron in January this year. The striker is said to be on a 6 year deal with the club, which would be one of the longest deals at the club.

The Brazilian started his career at Sport Recife, coming through the academy at the club. Joelinton made 39 appearances for Recife scoring 7 times.

The forward moved to Hoffenheim in 2015. The move to the German side did not start off well for the Brazilian, appearing just once in his first season, coming on as a last minute substitute against Schalke.

Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images

Joelinton was loaned to Austrian side Rapid Wien, in search of first team football. The former Recife man found his feet in Austria, making 79 appearances over two seasons, scoring 21 times.

Returning to his parent club Hoffenheim at the beginning of last season, Joelinton was handed his first start in a DFB Pokal first round match. The Brazilian scored a hat-trick during a 6-1 rout over FC. Kaiserslautern. The forward scored 11 goals in all competitions and provided 9 assists.

Last season with Hoffenheim under Julian Nagelsmann, the Brazlian was used as a second striker, and as a winger at times because of his technical ability on the ball. Joelinton is regarded as a pretty good play-maker (hence the 9 assists), a great dribbler, and is able to score goals in a variety of ways. For more analysis on Joelinton check out the piece we released on this transfer deal earlier in the week here.

Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images

Newcastle’s pursuit of the Brazilian forward has taken the majority of this year, with Newcastle beginning talks with Hoffenheim back in January. It is understood that Joelinton was a target that Rafa and the ownership of Newcastle United did not see eye to eye on with Rafa believing the player was talented, but overpriced. Joelinton was likely a signing that was going to be made regardless of the manager put in place at Newcastle

Joelinton will be a welcome arrival to Newcastle's forward line. A forward line that has lost Ayoze Perez, Salomon Rondon and Joselu this summer.

There is still a lot of work to be done by Newcastle's hierarchy, with 16 days left the club desperately need more players through the door.

**Editors Note: Updated with official club pictures and updated financial figures.