Despite reports suggesting Newcastle United had "agreed" to sign Anderlecht striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, German side Borussia Monchengladbach are looking to hijack the £15 million move. Partizan Belgrade President Dragan Duric claimed a deal had been agreed between the Magpies and Anderlecht for his former player, but reports in Germany suggest Monchengladbach are trying to scupper the move at the 11th hour. Both Newcastle and Monchengladbach missed out on Max Kruse, who moved to Wolfsburg instead, and now the pair will do battle for Serbia striker Mitrovic instead, according to German TV channel Sport1. The 20-year-old Serbian has netted 42 goals in 88 matches for the Belgian club, and has a career total of 67 strikes from 156 games. Although clubs including Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have been linked to the 6ft 3in forward, Newcastle have supposedly agreed to part with £15 million for a player they have courted for more than a year according to the president of Mitrovics former side back in Serbia. Speaking to Mundo a couple of weeks ago, Duric revealed Partizan will receive 20% of the fee, or 3.4 million for the sell-on of Mitrovic from Anderlecht - which puts the full sum of the transfer at approximately 22 million, or £15 million.
"All of you criticised me when I sold Mitrovic and now it has turned out that it was an excellent move. "We sold him for 5 million and now Partizan will gain another 3.4 million - a total of 8.4 million for one player. "According to my information, the transfer of Mitrovic to Newcastle is a done deal - it is a matter of time before he signs."
A powerful and relatively-quick forward, Mitrovic has an eye for goal and he grabbed headlines when he scored Anderlechts equaliser at the Emirates Stadium last November when the Belgian side came from three goals down to draw 3-3 against Arsenal in a Champions League group-stage match. Anderlecht paid Partizan Belgrade a club-record £4 million for the 11-cap Serbia international, who started his career at Teleoptik, back in August 2013 and he has gone on to become one of Europes most sought-after forwards. This season, Mitrovic has bagged 26 goals in 49 matches, including 18 in 35 Belgian Pro League appearances and three in the Champions League. For all the latest NUFC News, Views and Transfers make sure to follow WhatCultureNUFC on Twitter and Facebook.
NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.
