Joelinton knows a thing or two about perseverance. There have been many times during the 27-year-old’s career where he could have said: “I’ve had enough of this.” There were early setbacks, a struggle to acclimatise after moving to Europe, a 2,000-minute-plus Premier League scoring drought and a fine for drink-driving.
Yet, here we are in October 2023 with the Newcastle player a fan favourite for a club playing in the Champions League and with title ambitions, having scored on his debut for Brazil in June.
Joelinton has been relentlessly mocked and ridiculed, partly because of the £40m transfer fee that took him from Hoffenheim to Newcastle in the summer of 2019 but also for a playing style that is perhaps not what fans expect from a Brazilian. He was signed as a forward but no matter how hard he tried the goals did not come. After scoring against Tottenham at the end of August 2019, he went 26 games without a goal and ended the season with two in 38 games. Not enough for a £40m striker, as many were keen to point out.
Joelinton tried to avoid the criticism but in a rare interview, the affable midfielder says it was impossible to completely shut it out. “If I said it didn’t bother me, I’d be lying,” he says. “It bothers you. It hurts. You read the messages, the news and it makes you sad. But I tried not to follow it, I tried not to read newspapers or watch television. I hardly watched anything. But still, you always hear something.
“Sadness hits. There’s no way round it. Football is my life. If you’re not doing well in your job, that will reflect on your life. That happens to all players. If you’re not doing well on the pitch, your life isn’t going to be great.”
It is fair to say that difficulties have shaped Joelinton and the way he is now. From a poor family in Brazil, as a child he started working, selling hotdogs in Aliança, a small city of 35,000 people, with his aunt before moving to Recife, where he started playing in Sport Recife’s youth team. His professional debut came in 2014. Less than a year later, he moved to Germany, heading to Hoffenheim for a fee of £2m, but struggled initially. He had swapped a climate of 30C and more for one that could dip below zero.
“It was quite difficult to start with,” he says. “It was the first time I had left Brazil in my life. I was moving to live in such a cold country like Germany. I’m from the north-east of Brazil. I’m used to hot weather, summer all year. I often joke that the first coat I ever bought was to go to Germany because I had never worn one in Recife. The cold was hard, as was the language. But you know, we need to face it. You just have to wrap up warm and get on with working hard because it was my dream.”
Joelinton did not get many chances during his first year at Hoffenheim, playing only four minutes of league football before a two-season loan spell to Rapid Vienna in Austria. There, the goals started to come, as did the assists, although it was not always plain sailing. It was his first, but not final, comeback in Europe.
“What I lived in Germany and Austria made me a strong guy, it made me grow,” he says. “Things happen very quickly in football. You go up and down very quickly. When you’re down, you have to work hard to get out. But when you’re on top, you have to enjoy the moment but also work even harder to not to go back down again. I needed to get out of the bottom.”
In 2018-19, Joelinton had his best season at Hoffenheim with 11 goals and nine assists, numbers and performances that caught Newcastle’s attention. In the summer of 2019, he was signed for £40m, a club record. He was not ready and six goals in his first two seasons did not help. He became a joke.
“The criticism was all on me because I was the striker,” he says. “The whole team was not playing well. It was easy to blame the No 9, the most expensive signing in the team. But I understand and accept the criticism. I really wasn’t playing at my best level. It just gave me even more strength and motivation to shut up the people who criticised me and to show my quality, my value.”
Joelinton did not have a problem with the manager who signed him, Steve Bruce, but there is no doubt that the arrival of Eddie Howe in November 2021 changed everything. Hired by the new Saudi Arabian owners, the former Bournemouth manager told Joelinton he believed him in – and moved him into midfield.
“When Eddie arrived, I saw a new opportunity, a chance to improve,” Joelinton says. “Things at the club became more positive. I had to grab the opportunity because things were not going to happen naturally. I was working hard as well. I was training very hard in the months before the new owners arrived. I was already a better player: stronger and more confident.”
Joelinton gave up his No 9 shirt and started to excel in his new position. Howe may or may not have realised but it soon became clear that the change also suited the Brazilian’s personality.
“Today I can show more of who I am than before,” he says. “When you’re a striker, you’re there to score goals. The media and the fans demand goals from you. I’ve never been that hungry man for goals. Of course, I always want to score, but if I see a teammate in a better position, I’m going to make the pass.
“You see the greatest strikers in the world. They don’t pass the ball, they want everything for themselves. They always want to score. And I’ve never had that desire. When I was a kid I also played in midfield. That’s what I like: playing, having fun, having the ball, dribbling. In attack you’re isolated, you’re up front and you don’t touch the ball as much.”
With his problems in the past, Joelinton is enjoying the best spell of his career. In June he made his debut for Brazil, against Guinea, realising a childhood dream by scoring for the five-times world champions. “I still can’t believe it,” he says. “It’s been days, months and I still have no words to explain the feeling. The Seleção has been my dream. The 2002 Seleção made me dream of being able to wear the little yellow jersey. Scoring a goal on my debut … I’ll keep it with myself for ever. I love my country, I love Brazil. Representing the country is a pride and joy that’s hard to explain.”
Joelinton has lived in Europe for eight years but he still pays close attention to how his first club, Sport Recife, are doing. They are battling for promotion to the top division and he hopes to return one day. “I want to come back as the same Joelinton, but one big difference, coming back world champion. It would be a huge achievement to return to Sport, my childhood club, as a World Cup winner.”
It is not only Sport though. The city of Aliança and the state of Pernambuco will always be on his mind. The place where he was born and spent his first 18 years formed him and, just like Newcastle, his home town is far from the country’s major economic and political centre.
“The city of Newcastle is made up of hard-working people from the north of England, as are Recife and Aliança,” he says. “I identify with them. I have a dream of winning something for Newcastle. The club hasn’t won anything for a long time. The supporters love this club very much and I’d like to be in the history as a winner here. It’s a passionate people and they supported me in my times of difficulty. That means a lot.”
