I dreamed of playing for Newcastle but Jurgen Klopp changed my mind – I joined Arsenal and Chelsea instead
FORMER Arsenal and Chelsea star Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang dreamed of playing for Newcastle.
The Gabon striker looks back to his best at Marseille, attempting to reignite a career that has stalled in recent years.
But in 2013, a 24-year-old Aubameyang was trying his best to leave Ligue 1 and there was no shortage of admirers.
Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen, Paris St Germain, and – most importantly – Newcastle were all interested.
His 19 league goals for Saint-Etienne left him second in the goalscoring charts, only behind PSG superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Joe Kinnear had just been installed as Newcastle’s director of football and Aubameyang became one of his top targets.
The Magpies made a bid of £15million, with the hope of securing a double deal with Kurt Zouma for £26m.
It was rejected, prompting Aubameyang to make a public statement about his desire to move to the Premier League.
He said: “My dream has always been to play in one of the top two leagues in the world.
“Newcastle is a good club and St James’s Park is a monumental stadium where there is passionate fans.”
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However, he ended up signing for Dortmund – then managed by Jurgen Klopp – who reached the Champions League final the previous season.
Explaining his decision in 2016, he said: “We opted for Dortmund, finalists in the Champions League, because my father studied Klopp’s game”.
During his time at Dortmund, Aubameyang became one of the hottest strikers in Europe.
While Newcastle embarked on a three year decline which would eventually witness them relegated from the Premier League in 2016.
Arsenal broke their transfer record to sign the forward from Dortmund in a £56million deal in 2018.
He won the FA Cup with the Gunners, and scored 64 goals in 114 leagues games before the 2021/22 season – when everything stumbled.
Aubameyang’s behaviour as captain and role model to the club’s younger players began to vex manager Mikel Arteta – and a very public fallout led to the striker’s sudden exit.
Barcelona snapped him up in January 2022 and Aubameyang made a solid start, scoring 11 goals in 17 La Liga matches.
Chelsea then decided to sign the 34-year-old in the summer of 2023.
It turned out to be a bad decision as he returned one Premier League goal and barely featured during a nightmare campaign for the club and the player.
But had Newcastle managed to sign Aubameyang in his prime, their last decade might have panned out very differently.