Newcastle United's winter transfer target Hugo Ekitike will leave Reims this summer - according to club president Jean-Pierre Caillot.
The 19-year-old centre-forward was subject of a huge bid from United back in January but the youngster preferred to stall on the move. Now Caillot has announced the sale is ready to be pushed through for the French club's exciting striker.
But he has name dropped some of Europe's big guns during an interview with the French media including Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. United are certainly in the market for another forward but with West Ham also thrown into the mix by Reims, it remains to be seen how this one unfolds.
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Caillot said: "The amount should be more than €20million. Afterwards, you have to know how to be reasonable."
It is assumed that "afterwards" means the potential add-ons for Ekitike based on future appearances while there is also talk of a 25% sell on fee. For a long time, it was thought that Ekitike was waiting for Paris St-Germain to make their move.
But Caillot said: "He has the qualities to one day join this type of club, but I think it's still too early."
And on the suggestion of Newcastle's making a renewed move, he said: "It 's typically the kind of environment where he could continue to grow and move on."
When speaking about the Magpies' bid last January, the president had said: "Newcastle positioned themselves, we discussed it, they made us an offer that did not suit us.
"As we do not really want him to leave, we have fixed the price quite high. They did offer us €35million (£29m) all in, but with a number of bonuses, some of them were quasi-impossible to reach. Like for example, winning the Champions League… We want €30m (£25m) flat and €10m (£8.3m) achievable bonuses."
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