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Joelinton

Stifler

by Stifler
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Checko

Checko

Posted
Posted

Such a Joelinton goal. Just power, hustle and aggression and their guys didn't want any part of it.

 

I feel he's definitely at his best when he's allowed to channel his inner Miley Cyrus and just go full wrecking ball.

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Lush Vlad

Lush Vlad

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Sanchez was hilarious for that goal.  We used to have a lad in nets like that at U11's.  Just rooted to his line when the other team were running through one on one and scared to come out.  

 

Can't really blame Sanchez for being afraid to run out at the onrushing Big Joe, mind :lol: 

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Erikse

Erikse

Posted
Posted (edited)
16 minutes ago, Lush Vlad said:

Sanchez was hilarious for that goal.  We used to have a lad in nets like that at U11's.  Just rooted to his line when the other team were running through one on one and scared to come out.  

 

Can't really blame Sanchez for being afraid to run out at the onrushing Big Joe, mind :lol: 

 

They spent 37m euros on 2 goalkeepers while selling Mendy for 18,5m euros. It is reported that Real Madrid can by Kepa (currently on loan) for around 20m euros. Basically spent the same amount on the 2 goalkeepers that they bought, and their first choice goalkeeper seems worse than both of the keepers that they let go. Such a Chelsea thing to do.

 

 

Edited by Erikse

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AyeDubbleYoo

AyeDubbleYoo

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Posted

Quite a few clubs seem to have sold perfectly good keepers and spent loads on getting someone in who was basically no better. 
 

Guess clubs are struggling with the requirements for the modern GK and what they actually want. And what makes someone a good buy. 

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Smal

Smal

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http://archive.today/281iQ

 

Quote

Joelinton: From missing the bus in Rochdale to facing Lionel Messi

 

Brazilian shared a bedroom with his family as a child and was jeered as a failing centre forward — now he has evolved into a midfield powerhouse at Newcastle

 

Martin Hardy

Friday December 01 2023, 10.00am GMT, The Times

 

Joelinton was sitting on his own, headphones playing, trying to stay calm as the yellow-and-green Brazil team bus wound its way through the streets of Rio de Janeiro.

 

He would not know until later that his six-year-old son, Neto, and his wife, Thays Gondim, caught sight of the vehicle on its way to the Maracana, the home of Brazilian football, to face their bitter rivals Argentina, in perhaps Lionel Messi’s last appearance in the country.

 

The 27-year-old’s journey started in a one-bedroom home in Alianca, eastern Brazil, in which he shared the same bedroom with his father, mother and sister. He will mention his father working away from home, his mother who took two jobs to support him, a life before the highs of representing Brazil and the initial lows of life in England.

 

All that will come later. For now, Joelinton is back on that bus, reliving a genuine life high. The unexpected team member, trying his best to control his emotions, set for one of the biggest stages in world football: the man who could not score goals for Newcastle United, now coming face to face with Messi in battle.

 

“I felt like a child again when I got on the bus,” Joelinton says. “All the supporters were at the hotel, chanting loud and that is just an amazing feeling. I think every kid in Brazil dreams to be with the Brazil team and to have a chance to play against Argentina.

 

“I had my headphones on, to try and get some music, to enjoy the moment and not think so much, be present and try to live it. What music? Brazilian, hip-hop, with words about life and love.

 

Joelinton, pictured playing against PSG this week, has now won six Brazil caps after his impressive midfield displays

 

“I just tried to be cold, to not think so much. Was I sitting with a big smile on my face trying to look cool? Yes!”

 

Joelinton’s parents were sitting in a stadium so packed and raucous that violence flared, delaying the World Cup qualifier by 30 minutes. He saw Messi for the first time in the tunnel before the warm-up, but this day — just more than a week ago, on November 22 — was not one to be starstruck on. Joelinton’s journey has been too arduous for that.

 

“Messi is one of the best in history and it was the first time I played against him and, yeah, he is incredible, but I had to focus on the game, and for me that was more important than sharing a pitch with him,” he says.

 

It is then he speaks of his father, Jorge. “He worked in a big factory, like a sugar plant or alcohol, and he had to live in another city, so we only saw him at weekends,” Joelinton says. “Yes, he sacrificed a lot for his family. He had to live away from home and when he moved I was just a baby. It was a small house and we had one bedroom and it had two beds in there to share.”

 

Is that where the dedication came from, I ask, to get him from such a difficult time in Newcastle to the Brazil national team?

 

“Yes, but not only him but my mam as well,” he says. “When he was not there she had to take care of me and my sister. It was not easy. She worked as a chef and as a cleaner. Both of them set an example. They teach me to work hard for your dreams, to believe in everything for what I think is right.”

 

Brazil lost 1-0, with Joelinton coming on as a substitute in the 72nd minute for his sixth cap, and first at the Maracana. Nine minutes later he played a ball to his right, put an arm to the side of Rodrigo De Paul as he went to run up the pitch, and then watched in shock as the Argentina midfielder fell to the turf, holding his face. Joelinton was shown a red card.

 

Joelinton received a contentious red card against Argentina in his first game at the Maracana last month

 

“There was frustration and I was sad,” he says. “I know I did nothing to get a red card and it’s difficult to accept. We go one man down and maybe we could have drawn the game. It was not the result we wanted, but to be there was to live a dream for me.”

 

Highs and lows. Lows and highs. That has been Joelinton’s way.

 

Rio was not in sight or mind four days into 2020, when Newcastle drew 1-1 with Rochdale in an FA Cup third-round tie. The mood of the 4,000 travelling supporters from Tyneside was as bleak as the northwest weather. Joelinton was still a centre forward then. He missed two chances. He was jeered. A 40-year-old striker called Aaron Wilbraham equalised for League One Rochdale. The story wrote itself.

 

Underneath the David Kilpatrick Stand at Spotland, TV cables hogged the concrete walkways between the dressing rooms. The game was long finished when Joelinton, wearing flip flops and shorts, tip-toed past the wires after being selected to take a mandatory drugs test. His shoulders were stooped. He is a big man, but the weight of everything sat heavy.

 

Outside, the sky was still emptying itself. Newcastle’s team bus had already left for home. Joelinton, dejected and wet, climbed into a member of staff’s car and settled in for a 2½-hour journey back to the northeast.

 

“I was just thinking about the game on the way home. It was a difficult day, a difficult time,” he recalls. “I understood the feeling of the fans. They want the team to play well, to perform and win games. When you don’t perform, it is normal, people will criticise you. Thankfully my family were here, they helped me.

 

“I did not think of leaving. I understood the criticism but I never thought to leave Newcastle. It was just try and be better, to show them I could play.”

 

It was an international break when Eddie Howe took his first training session as Newcastle head coach in November 2021. There was a bleep test in the morning and intense, small-side games in the afternoon. No one was talking of the centre forward Joelinton representing Brazil back then. No Messi or Maracana — but he did hope for less misery.

 

“I remember that after the first session, he [Howe] called me in the night because I had left training early,” Joelinton says. “I didn’t know it was his number. He just said, ‘Hi Joe,’ and I knew it was him.

 

“I could feel my groin and I told him. He let me go and later called and asked how I was and if I was feeling the injury still. It was very kind of him. That’s where our connection started.

 

“When I put the phone down, I thought, ‘This man is caring for me.’ For him to call me in the night and be worried how I was, it was very good for me. I felt very important for him. It made me feel more confident and happy.”

 

It has been a transformative relationship: the almost shy, tentative striker who cost £40 million from Hoffenheim in the summer of 2019 has become a midfield powerhouse, the driving engine of his side. Newcastle and Joelinton have gone from rock bottom to the Champions League together.

 

“The first two years was not easy,” he says. “I’m not going to lie and say it was good. I had difficult times but I never cried and I never quit. I always tried to work, to show my worth, and to show people I could play.

 

“What is it about the gaffer [Howe]? Everything. The way he works. The way he cares about the players. The way he cares about the club and everyone who works at the club. How passionate he is with the football. How he wants to improve players. How he works so hard. There are so many things I can say about him. He knows the love I have for him. He is just great.”

 

It was not a great moment in the 96th minute at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday night. Newcastle were leading Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in their Champions League group F tie when the ball ricocheted off the chest of Tino Livramento and on to his elbow. The VAR, Tomasz Kwiatkowski, told the referee, Szymon Marciniak, to go to the pitch-side monitor, a penalty was controversially awarded, and Kylian Mbappé converted in the 98th minute to earn PSG a draw.

 

“I knew it was not a penalty but because they send him to the monitor I knew he would give it,” Joelinton says. “The feeling is devastation. When something like that happens, it’s difficult to accept.

 

“When we got to the dressing room, we were not shouting or nothing, I think everyone controlled themselves, we controlled the emotions.

 

“The gaffer said to everyone the same thing, he felt very bad about the game, to not be able to share the win at the end, but he said he was very proud of the team.

 

“We want to be part of the Champions League and there is a chance we can qualify [for the knockout stage]. We will do our best and let’s see at the end if the result comes our way.”

 

All that after the red card against Argentina? “Yeah, the refs have not been so good for me!”

 

Life has, however. He has three young children and his eldest son is settled in school in the northeast. His short-cropped hair still has its blonde top. He is relaxed when we chat and his English is now very good.

 

“Yes, of course I want to stay,” he says. “I feel at home here. My family feels at home, my son has friends here. I love the city. There have been talks [about a new deal], there’s nothing close yet but there’s been conversation and it’s a good start.”

 

He is close to Bruno Guimarães, his Newcastle and now Brazil colleague. “After the Dortmund game, I was talking to Bruno, and I said, ‘The next five games are Colombia, Argentina, then Chelsea, Paris, Man U!’ ”

Some turnaround.

 

“Yes, I think that is my character, “ he concludes. “The determination, it is where I come from. I will never hide. It is about hard work. That is what my parents taught me.”

 

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HawK

HawK

Posted
Posted
On 27/11/2023 at 15:05, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Quite a few clubs seem to have sold perfectly good keepers and spent loads on getting someone in who was basically no better. 
 

Guess clubs are struggling with the requirements for the modern GK and what they actually want. And what makes someone a good buy. 

 

It's like clubs want a ball-playing keeper at all costs, regardless of the rest of the skillset.

 

I'm sure there's a Disney parallel here.

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