Report: Newcastle United and Aston Villa want Moroccan goal-machine Abderrazak Hamdallah

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Two Premier League clubs are reportedly in the hunt for Moroccan striker Abderrazak Hamdallah. 

Foot Mercato claims that Aston Villa are keen on the player but that Newcastle United are leading the race for his signature in the next transfer window. 

Of course, the interest from Newcastle United does make perfect sense, when you consider his current club. Hamdallah is playing in Saudi Arabia for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League. A Saudi-backed consortium is currently in the process of a takeover at Newcastle United. 

Bringing in the top scorer from that league would certainly be a big coup in the new ownership’s eyes. 

As for Aston Villa, they have likely been alerted by the 29-year-old’s sensational goal record. He has netted 26 goals in 25 games this season for Al-Nassr. In the 2019 calendar year, as reported by the BBC, Hamdallah was the world’s leading scorer, netting 57 goals in 38 games – three more than Robert Lewandowski.

The report goes on to suggest that he has an €18 million (£15.7m) release clause but would have serious troubles obtaining a UK Work Permit as he retired from international football in November last year with just 14 caps for his nation. 

But Hamdallah has relatively little experience in European football, one impressive campaign with Norwegian side Aalesund seven years ago. Since then he has been scoring goals for fun in China, Qatar, and now Saudi Arabia and Newcastle and Villa are seemingly willing to take a chance on him having a similar strike rate in English football.