Hugo Ekitike
Hugo Ekitike
Hugo Ekitike has claimed PSG did not help him to 'do better' after the Frenchman turned down a move to Newcastle United to join the Parisian giants.
Newcastle tried to sign Ekitike in both the mid-season and summer windows in 2022, but Eddie Howe harboured 'no hard feelings' towards the striker after the Magpies missed out. Howe, on the contrary, was at pains to stress he 'really did wish him luck'.
In some ways, Howe sounds like the manager Ekitike was searching for after leaving boyhood club Stade de Reims. Although Ekitike admitted he would have been 'stupid' if he had not learned from training alongside some of the best players in the world at PSG, the 22-year-old did not progress like he had hoped.
"I was arriving in [Lionel] Messi and Neymar's last year," he told L'Equipe. "Go and get them out... you can't. They have to play, they're the best players in the world.
"You're behind, you're trying to save time. Two minutes, 15 minutes, two matches on the bench then 60 minutes...there's no lying in football. Only continuity makes you a player who can count.
"I'm never going to say that I did everything well. I could have done better - that's the truth - but they [PSG] didn't help me do better. They didn't give me confidence. Even during training, even through discussions...they never really took the time to talk to me to be able to help me. I found myself in a situation where I was forced to get by.
"Even in a match, I had to think about how I moved so as not to hinder any player so that the team could function. All that, mixed with a confidence that wasn't at its maximum, with a different football...that's a lot of information that meant it didn't work, but I learned a lot."
Ekitike ultimately joined Eintracht Frankfurt on a loan-to-buy deal after going six months without playing for PSG last year. It proved a smart move; Ekitike has already scored 18 goals in all competitions for the Bundesliga side this season.