L’Équipe report that among the clubs that 20-year-old Lille midfielder Boubakary Soumaré rejected in January were Liverpool, Real Madrid, Dortmund, Chelsea, Wolves and Newcastle United.
Click Here: New Zealand Kiwis rugby store
Soumaré was entirely set against leaving Lille this month, feeling, as he revealed in a recent interview, as he felt that he needed at least one full season as a starter in Ligue 1 before making a move.
Newcastle’s attempts to convince Soumaré to join were intense and at times desperate. The board asked their francophone players to contact the youngster, with both Allan Saint-Maximin and Florian Lejeune blowing up the midfielder’s FaceTime to try to convince him to become a Magpie.
One of those FaceTime sessions included them giving him a virtual tour of the club’s training facilities. Soumaré was not convinced.