Yoane Wissa scored just one Premier League goal last season to raise concerns over his Newcastle United transfer.
Yoane Wissa is hoping to use the upcoming World Cup as the ideal springboard to rescue his Newcastle United career.
To suggest Wissa’s debut campaign on Tyneside has been a disaster would be an understatement. After forcing a move from Brentford, the 29-year-old arrived at St James’ Park in poor condition.
Wissa did not train for Newcastle before suffering a knee injury on international duty. He has since been chasing his tail for match sharpness, with Eddie Howe preferring Anthony Gordon, Will Osula and Nick Woltemade up front.
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Yoane Wissa prepares for World Cup
Newcastle want Wissa to use the World Cup as a platform to kick-start his stuttering Toon career. He will be asked to lead the line for DR Congo, who face Portugal, Columbia and Uzbekistan in the group stage.
His preparations were thrown into chaos as an Ebola outbreak in the nation - which has killed 228 people - forced the team to cancel their pre-tournament training camp. The entire squad and first-team staff are training in Belgium but must isolate for 21 days before travelling to the US.
DR Congo will participate at the World Cup for the first time since 1974 after beating Jamaica in a play-off. Wissa joined the jubilant celebrations across Kinshasa - the capital city - earlier this year.
"Today we have just realised how difficult things are to achieve without hard work and perseverance,” he posted on Instagram in March. “Breaking a negative spiral, breaking a wheel much bigger than ourselves, has been the most important and trying test in our history.
“We will never play the same way again, we will never sing this national anthem the same way again. We are not perfect, but we have been mocked, ridiculed, humiliated, but we have always faced adversity head-on.
"Thank you to the previous generations, because we are your children, you shaped us, you fought for better conditions and for us to focus on our football. This victory is also yours. This victory is global. Yesterday I cried tears of joy because of hardships in my life I've endured and today is also a personal consecration.
“Thanks to little Yoane Wissa who suffered injustices, insults, rejections, but who has always had love, or never gave up and forged his brain and heart against everything. Thank you to my family for accompanying me, helping me, loving me (and) protecting me so today we can live together what we never thought would happen in our life.”
Eddie Howe backs Yoane Wissa
Howe believes Wissa will be a different player for Newcastle next season with a full pre-season under his belt. He told reporters: “I still think there’s loads more to come. I feel a pre-season would definitely help him.
“You’ll see a totally different player with a really sustained period where he’s able to do what he needs to do. He’s been trying, he’s been really wanting to make a difference. There have been physical things stopping him from doing that.
“No injury, just time on the pitch, he needs training to get his body up to full speed. We haven’t been able to train him how we would normally train him. It’s very small groups, games every two or three days, stop-start for him, he was never able to get a rhythm.”
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