· 17 September 2025, 14:00
In case you've missed it, Newcastle United take on Barcelona in the Champions League on Thursday night, returning to the competition after a one-year absence.
Newcastle were handed a pretty tough draw for the league phase of the competition, with some big hitters set to face the Magpies.
Despite that, though, some prominent pundits, including Sir David Beckham, have backed Newcastle to surprise a few people this season.
Now, former England star Joe Cole has joined Becks in backing the Magpies to do something unexpected, but not just that, he's backed one Newcastle player to be the competition's 'breakout star'.
Advertisement
Resize 13
Getty Images
Champions League breakout star?
Joe Cole backs Anthony Gordon to be the Champions League's breakout star
The ex-Chelsea man was asked his predictions for the winners of each European competition on TNT Sports' Instagram, then asked who will bag the Champions League Golden Boot, who will be the surprise package, the best CL player and the Champions League's breakout star.
Joe Cole chose Newcastle as the surprise package and claimed that Anthony Gordon would be the breakout star of the competition.
If Anthony Gordon plays to the best of his ability, not whatever that was last season, then there's every chance he could be the competition's breakout star, but he has to get his head on straight first.
Advertisement
Joe Cole got a bit too patriotic with his other predictions
Unfortunately, for Newcastle and Anthony Gordon, a couple of other predictions by Cole in the short clip do undermine his credibility somewhat.
Namely, his predictions for the European League and Conference League winners, which were Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, respectively. No disrespect to either side, but that's a huge swing by JC there.
Barcelona winning the Champions League isn't an unpopular choice, but hopefully, they'll have to do that after recovering from a defeat in the first game.