Arsenal and Newcastle tracking Sunderland forward.

Daniel Storey

Arsenal and Newcastle are reported to have joined a clutch of European heavyweights in taking an interest in highly-rated Sunderland forward Joel Asoro.

Asoro, 17, has already made Premier League debut for the club as a late substitute in their recent 2-1 home defeat to Middlesbrough.

The player first came to David Moyes’ attention by shining on the club’s pre-season tour of France, when he opened the scoring in their 3-2 win over Dijon. He has also featured for Sweden’s Under-21s side this season and there’s even been talk of the player being asked to train with their senior international side, such are the player’s abilities.

Swedish outlet Expressen claim his progress has not gone unnoticed with Newcastle and Arsenal interested in signing the teenager. It is claimed the Magpies sent chief scout Graham Carr to watch the forward during the 1-1 draw with Spain Under-21s, while the Gunners are also keeping tabs on Asoro.

 

The Chronicle report that eight other clubs are also in the race to sign Asoro with Inter, AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Paris Saint-Germain, Lyon, Valencia and Villarreal also sending a scouts to watch him play for Sweden. That’s a lot of clubs.

Asoro, who joined Sunderland from IF Brommapojkarna last summer, remains diplomatic over his future despite the interest in him.

“I’m not surprised by the fact that many scouts were there to see such a beautiful match,” Asoro told Swedish TV station TV 12.

“I do my job, we’ll see about the rest later on.”