Yankuba Minteh: Can Newcastle's 'magic' teen star in Premier League?
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Yankuba Minteh immediately endeared himself to fans at his former club Odense by scoring a winning goal on his debut three minutes after coming on as a substitute - but his rise has come with pressures
As Newcastle United prepare for European competition this season, one of their players at a fellow Champions League club has the potential to create further excitement.
Yankuba Minteh, 18, has had a meteoric rise from amateur anonymity in The Gambia. He's already become a sensation in the Danish Superliga, played senior international football and also encountered some of the game's well-known pitfalls.
He joined Newcastle in June for a multi-million pound fee but was immediately loaned out to Dutch side Feyenoord.
So what can Magpies fans expect from Minteh? And what are his chances of eventually making it in the Premier League? BBC Sport Africa takes a look.
'X Factor, magic and the extraordinary'
The "shy little boy" needed two sessions to adapt to an artificial pitch and the cold when he joined Danish side Odense on trial as a 15-year-old.
"We could already see there was something with this guy," says Steffen Nielsen, the club's vice football chief executive who had a tip-off from Minteh's agent.
Odense manager Andreas Alm added Minteh to his matchday squad for the first time after seeing him in a reserve game the previous day, and the teenager averaged a goal involvement every 122 minutes for the first team
"We were not sure what it was - some X-factor, some magic where he could do something extraordinary."
Two weeks in, Nielsen chatted with Minteh. The youngster was enjoying himself but was reluctant to fully commit to challenges out of respect for his potential team-mates.
When the "gloves were off", as Nielsen puts it, the results were even more impressive. And when Minteh returned from a spell of senior club football in The Gambia as a 17-year-old, the progress Odense had hoped for was "very, very good".
"The qualities he has are not trainable. Either you have it or you don't - and he has it, big time, with his speed and quickness."
After earning a two-year contract, promotion from the under-19 team and a prolific spell in the reserves last season, Minteh scored the winner three minutes after coming on in a 2-1 home win against eventual champions FC Copenhagen.
"He went from complete unknown to very, very known," recalls Nielsen. "He took everything at once - he ate the whole cake.
"He became a starter and killed some of the other teams. It was a brilliant time."
Tom Saintfiet, head coach of The Gambia's national team, included Minteh for the first time in November after he contributed to five goals in seven games at club level.
"He is very young and has a lot of qualities," says Saintfiet, who handed Minteh his debut against Guinea-Bissau that same month and is liaising with Newcastle over his development.
"He is very fast but he can use that speed in a dribble. He can create on the inside and outside, look for a combination or go for goal and is unpredictable for defenders."
Reigning Dutch champions Feyenoord will give Minteh an environment he can grow in this season, believes The Gambia's head coach Tom Saintfiet
Disciplinary action for the 'rocket to the moon'
Minteh received brief suspensions at Odense for incidents including kicking a corner flag and staying out after 11pm two days before a match.
"He's 18 years old and in his mind he was like a 14-year-old," Nielsen says of the curfew breach. "Everything was going so fast, it was like he was in a rocket on his way to the moon.
"He was mad and sad at himself because he put his team-mates in a bad situation. He accepted it, went down to the dressing room and apologised."
Nielsen sympathises with Minteh and speaks warmly of the "very likeable" personality who quickly won friends at the club.
"Sometimes these guys need to make mistakes. Even if you are the best player, you cannot break internal rules."
He is also said to have faced disgruntlement from fans as the prospect of his likely departure increased.
"The expectations were very high and the desire for a transfer puts a lot of pressure on a young player," says Saintfiet, who Minteh spoke to for support.
"He's still a kid. He listens to the coach and advisers but also puts himself under pressure because he tasted what it was like to be a star.
"He is a very passionate guy, a very nice guy to work with - very respectful and disciplined.
"The way that he contacted me when he had a bad moment at Odense showed me that he is smart and grown up enough to ask for advice."
Odense's Steffen Nielsen says Minteh ran 'all over the pitch' when he first joined the club - but predicts he will be 'very fast' to sharpen his tactical awareness
How high can Minteh go?
Minteh's finishing and tactical awareness were on Odense's agenda before they made the difficult decision to sell.
Saintfiet has similar aspirations to help Minteh balance tactical discipline with creative freedom, but he is "very pleased" at Minteh working with Feyenoord manager Arne Slot at a club known for patient coaching and attacking football.
"He has the level to play higher than the Danish league - the only question is, what are his limits?" asks Saintfiet.
"You have to give a player of his age three or four years to know. Is it Holland? Is it England? We don't know right now.
"It's a different level physically and mentally but it's a very, very smart move by Newcastle and the player that he goes to Feyenoord. The Dutch league is very good for young attacking players.
"This transfer gives him a little bit of time to enjoy himself. We don't need to put on too much pressure from the start. Let him grow."
But Nielsen is already confident of Minteh's ability to crack English football's top flight.
"It's just him, a football and playing the game he loves. It could be on a sandy pitch in The Gambia, it could be in Odense, it could be in the Premier League.
"When he gets the chance to play in the Premier League, he will grab it."